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Socio-Economic  Mythes 


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AND 


Mythe-Makers 


BY 


YOURS  TRULY 


r 

BOSTON 

ARENA  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

COPLEY   SQUARE 


Copyrighted,  1896, 
SY 

ARENA  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 


All  Rights  Reserved. 


Arena  Press. 


HN 

K5lo  3  s 


5oeio-E<;oQomie  (T\ytf?es 

aijd 

/T\ytl?e-/T\a^ers. 


To  mould  the  general  thought,  to  direct  the  social  aim, 
within  the  breast  of  man  to  waken  mother-feeling ;  dear 
reader,  may  this  be  yours  and  mine. 


1Rev>erentiall£  H>efcfcate& 

TO  THE 

Cause  of  the  Gods  of  Society. 


Of  vicious  class  legislation  we  have  overmuch.  But 
more,  give  us  more  of  equality's  pure  white  wine.  Into  the 
Golden  Goblet  pour,  pour.  Stop  not.  Equality-legislation 
ne'er  can  overflow.    Each  shall  quaff,  and  all  shall  be  happy. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

.1.     Mythes  and  Mythe-Makers,       -        -  7 

II.     Mythes  and  Mythe-Makers  (Cont.),   -  44 

III.  Society's  Movements  Outlined,        -  77 

IV.  Socio-Economic  Facts,          -        -        -  96 

V.     Confusion  of  Socio-Economic  Facts. 
Political  Economy   an    Imaginary 

Calculus, 107 

VI.     Confusion  of  Socio-Econonic  Facts. 
Political  Economy  an   Imaginary 

Calculus  (Continued),          -         -        -  138 

VII.     Social  Law  the  Economic  Law,           -  201 


E- 


CHAPTER  I. 

MYTHES    AND    MYTHE-MAKERS. 

THE  growth  of  the  race  soul,  like  the  growth 
of  the  individual  soul,  keeps  pace  with  a 
rational  exercise  of  the  reasoning  power  ;  there- 
fore that  which  hinders  rational  exercise,  hin- 
ders the  unf oldment  of  the  God  within  us  (reason), 
hinders  our  moral  and  spiritual  growth ;  and 
this  is  done  by  imprisoning  mind  within  the 
sphere  of  ignorant  thought.  Minds  unconscious 
of  the  universality  of  reasonable  relation,  do,  in 
their  gropings  after  knowledge,  pass  through  an 
era  of  savage  thought,  the  era's  length  and 
depth  of  savagery  being  in  direct  ratio  to  pov- 
erty in  perception  of  reasonable  relation's  cer- 
tain law.  Etymological  authority  defines  mythes 
to  be  fabulous  or  imaginary  statements  convey- 


8  SOCIO-ECONOMIC     MYTHES 

ing  an  important  truth,  the  mythcs  themselves 
implying  a  claim  to  supernatural  power  ;  respect 
for  actual  facts  should  have  led  to  the  substitu- 
tion of  the  term  concealing  for  the  word  convey- 
ing. 

Mankind,  by  reason  of  its  birth  into  a  larger 
field  of  conscious  reasoning,  is  ever  seeking  the 
"why"  of  its  environment,  and  though  the  field 
in  which  we  query  be  much  expanded,  yet  the 
tendency  to  question  is  not  limited  ;  for  the 
inquiring  disposition  is  in  essence  just  the  same, 
be  it  exercised  by  savage  or  by  sage.  And  this 
propensity,  is  it  not  one  of  twin  essential  factors 
in  all  progress,  being  an  internal  motor,  speed- 
ing race  and  individual  along  the  evolutionary 
highway  of  planetary  life  ? 

It  is  to  be  expected  that  mythes.  will  follow 
in  the  trail  of  phenomena,  as  they  are  the  out- 
come of  mutually  acting  modes  of  existences ; 
mind,  and  things  outside  of  mind,  compelling 
its  attention.  Love  of  the  marvellous,  joined  to 
blind  conservatism  which  clings  alike  to  truth 
and  error,  does,   in  an   era  of  looking  at,  not 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  9 

looking  into,  things,  naturally  breed  mythes, 
therefore  whole  regiments  of  chaotic  theories 
invade  fields  which  rational  explanation,  given 
the  chance,  clears  of  knotty  stumps ;  and 
mythic  stumps,  are  they  not,  on  the  fair  land  of 
intelligent  reasoning,  unsightly  excrescences  like 
Pinkertonism,  that  blot  upon  our  Republic's 
national  existence  ? 

Accepted  as  sound  interpretations  of  the  real, 
mythes  are  to  knowledge  formidable  barriers, 
acting  like  a  hedge  across  a  highway  to  a  foot- 
sore traveller,  leaving  him  no  alternative  but 
waste  of  energy,  climbing  over  contrivance  use- 
less, wicked,  or  cessation  of  his  further  onward 
movement.  "Mythes  live  and  fatten  by  the 
credence  given  by  acceptance  of  them  as  final, 
as  real  truths.  Consequently,  along  all  lines  of 
travel  barricaded  by  these  illusionary  giants 
intellectual  progress  is  repressed,  and,  by  pre- 
venting social  conduct  from  becoming  human, 
we  are  robbed  of  an  earthly  heaven,  and  the 
soul's  growth  is  stunted  by  an  utterly  unsolvable 
problem,  by  a  mythe.     For  how  can  men,  with 


IO  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

natures  which  unfit  them  for  the  art  of  making 
heaven  here,  be  admitted  into  one  in  the  here- 
after, and  there  in  heavenly  soil  take  immediate 
root  ?  The  thing  is  unnatural ;  the  very 
thought  is  unthinkable. 

Nowhere  throughout  the  kingdom  of  relation 
does  the  principle  of  heredity  unimpeached  hold 
sovereign  sway,  save  in  the  fact  that  savage  action 
has  its  birth  in  savage  thought,  and  both  stand 
outside  the  domain  of  human  morality. 

Twofold  is  our  source  of  knowledge  :  experi- 
ence of  things  outside  of  self,  experience  of 
things  within  the  self  ;  but  their  value  as  intel- 
ligence depends  upon  the  amount  of  rational 
discrimination  used. 

Mythes  are  vapors  escaped  from  misty  mental 
space.  To  deform  the  language  is  baby's  pre- 
rogative, else  how  can  it  utter  infant  thoughts  ? 
Expression  cannot  rise  above  the  level  of  its  in- 
tellectual power  ;  no  one  questions  baby's  right. 

Equally  unquestionable  is  the  natural  right  of 
savages  to  build  and  hold  unto  their  mythes. 
Only  the    fool   expects  that  for  which  neither 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  I 

power  nor  opportunity  exists,  but  only  the  fool 
rests  content  with  shortage,  when  for  the  greater 
"  which  "  both  power  and  opportunity  exist.  It 
is  he  of  weak  sight  who  turns  from  the  brilliancy 
of  electric  illumination,  preferring  the  help  of 
feeble  candlelight.  The  sun  wakens  to  busy 
life  its  Eastern  peoples,  the  while  tarrying  in  its 
call  to  Western  folk.  Were  it  possible  for  an 
accountant  to  procure  at  a  given  hour  the  results 
of  the  toil  of  mortals,  could  true  judgment  be 
passed  without  taking  into  account  the  fact  that 
sunlight  comes  to  different  parts  of  the  earth  at 
different  hours  ?  Is  it  then  unreasonable  to 
expect  some  extra  legitimate  claim  upon  the 
advanced  races  and  of  them  some  special  expec- 
tation in  the  calculations  of  evolutionary  time  ? 
Therefore,  when  science  and  scientific  art, 
the  intellectual  weather-vanes,  point  to  a  longer 
stretch  of  race  life,  indicate  a  sooner  sunrise  in 
evolutionary  time,  and  yet  there  is  found  among 
such  people  mythe-making,  polished  and  refined, 
serving  as  a  lucrative  class  trade,  with  such  an- 
achronism, I  ask,  what  can  a  body  do  but  denounce 


12  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

it    as ?     As  the  ocean  is  to  a  drop  of  its 

watery  contents,  so  is  the  present  unfoldment 
of  industrial  power  contrasted  with  the  early 
days  of  economic  production;  and  yet,  simul- 
taneous with  improvements  in  industrial  methods, 
simultaneous  with  easy  production,  goes  a  less- 
ening of  chance  to  enjoy  the  comforts  produced ; 
and  the  laboring  class  —  upon  whom  society 
depends  for  its  existence,  upon  whom  social 
jugglery  fixes  the  doing  of  real  work  —  finds  its 
individual  members  in  a  state  of  continually 
increasing  economic  insecurity  through  the 
geometric  increase  of  their  spoliation. 

Not  a  few  savants,  politico-economic  (real 
sharpshooters  they),  aim  at  the  solution  of  this 
socio-industrial  problem,  but,  missing  the  mark, 
their  powder  soils  the  skies,  while  over  the  social 
gladiatorial  ring  this  social  (?)  fact  in  herculean 
might  is  master  still,  is  unhit  by  their  senseless 
verbiage.  From  the  kingdom  of  being  why 
learn  we  not  a  lesson  ?  Among  inferior  animals, 
the  individual  members  as  well  as  the  species  go 
the  length  of  their  spiritual  tether.      The  very 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  3 

trees  obey  a  natural  law  of  growth,  while  superior 
animals  act  as  if  privileged  to  interfere  with 
natural  principles  and  laws  of  dealing  with  each 
other.  True  modes  of  settling  what  is  right, 
modes  natural  to  real  humans,  are  disregarded ; 
and  so  is  trampled  upon,  and  trampled  out,  the 
individual's  and  the  species'  opportunity  to  rapid 
increase  in  intellectual,  in  moral  perception. 
Borne  in  space  upon  the  bosom  of  his  mother 
earth,  each  mortal  has  freedom  to  life-giving  air. 
To  the  intelligent  social  observer,  the  biolo- 
gical as  well  as  the  physical  fact  of  position  dem- 
onstrates the  divine  dictum  —  equal  natural  right 
of  each  individual  with  every  other  to  grow,  to 
unfold,  and  to  adjust  itself  in  the  spacial  con- 
ditions of  that  race's  social  environment  into 
which  such  individual  is  born  ;  the  adjustment 
to  be  not  by  artificial  means  (money's  vile  de- 
cree), but  through  laws  of  God,  laws  of  natural 
adaptation.  And  why  should  not  the  force 
beckoning  each  to  his,  to  her,  socio-economic 
position,  fixing  size  and  extent  of  its  space,  be 
a  natural  attraction,  a  law  of  atomic  social  gravr 


14  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

tation,  which  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the 
capacity  to  enjoy,  the  ability,  the  willingness,  to 
do  some  socially  useful  thing. 

Behold  the  celestial  world,  where  through  the 
universal  and  impartial  operation  of  great  nature's 
law,  each  atom  in  space  seeks  and  finds  its  right 
abiding  place ;  so  might  each  human  atom,  by 
the  natural  inherent  force  of  its  own  soul's  evo- 
lution, unerringly  find   its   true    spot  in  social 

space  but  for Now,  were  society  unarrested 

in  its  possible  onward  motion,  were  its  speed  not 
broken,  its  wheels  not  clogged,  then  would  all, 
then  would  each,  go  forward  rapidly  on  evolu- 
tion's progressive  track,  a  moving  equilibrium 
like  the  solar  system,  which  grandly  pierces 
space ;  a  unified,  diversified  whole.  To  the 
cheek  of  every  honest  social  thinker,  if  intelligent, 
is  brought  the  blush  of  shame  when  beholding 
the  unhuman  exhibit  of  division  into  classes, 
those  who  produce,  and  those  who  pillage,  albeit 
by  "  legal  "  means.  Nevertheless  this  social 
solecism,  bastard  of  human  intelligence,  this  rape 
upon  divine  law  (the  mathematic  test  of  right  to 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  5 

possession),  engages  in  its  defensive  warfare  the 
intellectual  efforts  and  the  useful  fortifications  of 
economic  mythe-making. 

Accepting  in  the  main  Herbert  Spencer's 
statement,  that  there  is  a  soul  of  truth  in  things 
erroneous,  I  am  yet  constrained  to  say  that, 
in  the  case  of  economic  mythes,  this  soul  is  so 
attenuated  that  its  truth  reaches  us  in  about 
the  same  period  of  time  it  takes  light  to  travel  to 
the  earth  from  the  farthermost  conceivable  fixed 
star.  Mythe-makers  are  they  who  account  for 
the  existence  and  order  of  things  in  a  fanciful 
manner.  As  the  zoologist  builds  up  intelligence 
by  unwinding  the  thread  of  biological  continuity, 
tracing  the  relation  in  time  of  existing  species 
to  their  progenitors  of  the  dim  and  misty  past, 
so  likewise  the  social  paleontologist,  by  light  of 
evolutionary  truths,  is  able  logically  and  histori- 
cally to  trace  through  past  variations  and 
modifications  our  present  mythe-making  species 
to  its  primal  protoplasmic  form. 

Turning  from  the  phantasies  of  an  occasion- 
al writer,  which  leave  small  doubt  that   in  his 


1 6  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

judgment  our  race  was  at  creation  poised  on 
topmost  peak  of  intellect's  high  cliff,  we  find 
that  psychological  as  well  as  historical  facts 
warrant  the  belief  in  a  savage  period  for  our 
race.  Literary  dissection,  if  conducted  in  obe- 
dience to  legitimate  principles  of  search  and 
research,  strips  the  object  in  hand  of  its  delud- 
ing appearances,  standing  it  forth  clothed  only 
in  the  garb  of  naked  truth.  Of  the  modes  of 
demonstration,  I  leave  to  a  later  chapter  the 
practical  verification,  by  direct  investigation  of 
the  mythes  themselves.  If  a  general  view  be 
an  intelligent  and  logical  presentation  of  the  sub- 
ject-matter, to  the  reflecting  mind  is  brought 
home  a  few  cogent  conclusions,  and  it  is  per- 
ceived that  like  causes  produce  like  effects ;  that 
differences  in  method  and  differences  in  degree 
constitute  no  difference  in  kind. 

At  society's  dawn  it  is  probable  that  individ- 
uals were  on  a  par  in  the  then  rude  art  of 
mythe-making.  The  principle  of  differentiation 
was  and  is  ever  moving  ;  none  disputes  its 
noiseless,  certain  tread,  albeit  much  distorted  in 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS,  I  7 

its  travel,  being  hampered  in  its  individualizing 
work.  Still,  in  spite  of  epileptic  seizures,  on  it 
goes  in  helpful  company.  Principle  of  heredity, 
hers  no  mean  jog-trot ;  surely  she  has  the  right 
of  way  to  do,  when  demanded  of  her,  a  most 
heinous  work.  In  the  lower  zoological  kind, 
social  instincts  (divine  marvel)  did  seed  and 
bud,  but  in  human  folk  they  blossomed  out. 
Human  language,  subtle,  meaningful  symbol, 
may  be  used  to  hem  ideas  in  ;  therefore  it  is 
likely  that  ability  to  manipulate  the  language 
was  no  small  factor  in  the  social  differentiation 
in  the  creation  of  the  mythe-making  class  ;  but 
for  their  perpetuation,  heredity  and  other  potent 
causes  have  sufficed. 

In  early  times,  as  now,  desire  to  excel  made 
the  explanations  of  the  more  fanciful  few  beyond 
the  comprehension  of  themselves  and  others, 
consequently  acceptable  to  all.  So  much  for 
their  origin.  But  in  causes  of  perpetuation  we 
have  on  hand  a  something  manifold  in  nature, 
causes  inside,  causes  outside  ;  and  many-shaped 
is    this    conglomeration    of  matter.       We    can 


I  8  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

trace  a  large  share  to  a  sense  of  subordination 
which  comes  from  mistaking  the  astral  of  su- 
periority for  superiority's  real  self.  Trifling  is 
the  blunder,  yet  it  makes  us  wade  in  the  wake 
after  phantasie's  delusive  sail.  The  curb-bit  in 
the  mouth,  the  bridle  on  the  head,  we  know 
the  feeblest  rider  may  retain  control  of  a  noble 
steed ;  but  let  that  horse  once  feel  his  own 
self-power,  what  is  the  situation  ?  Rider 
sprawling.  .  So  long  befooled,  the  many  have 
become  mentally  inert,  seem  not  to  realize  that 
they  can  look  behind,  on  either  side,  ahead  ;  are 
hindered  ;  wearing  old  blinders  yet,  have  come 
to  think  them  their  actual  flesh  and  bone. 

In  the  affair  of  mythe-perpetuation  there  are 
fine  ingredients,  among  them  self-conceit,  some- 
times taking  form  like  this  :  What  I  or  mine 
have  held  must  indeed  be  right  ;  to  instance 
which  I  quote  responses  to  an  oft-put  query  : 
"  Why  are  you  a  Republican  or  why  a  Demo- 
crat ?  "  "  Well,  really  now,  I  don't  quite  know  ; 
can't  think  of  any  reason  for  my  party  princi- 
ples,  my  political  belief,  except  it  be  —  well, 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 9 

you  see,  my  father,  he  was  one."  There  is  a 
reason  for  mythe-perpetuation  which  is  most 
unworthy.  It  arises  from  mismating  our  con- 
sciousness of  the  relation  between  wrong  deeds 
and  intellectual  mistakes,  with  creation-creed. 
From  this  wedded,  disunited  pair,  come  forth 
queer  notions  as  to  the  whence  and  the  where 
should  fall  future  suffering.  Mistakes,  want  of 
knowing,  breed  suffering.  This  the  dullest 
feels  and  therefore  knows.  Maybe  he  has  ex- 
perienced disappointment,  having  taken  to  a 
May-day  picnic  a  wrong  direction.  Ah  !  did  he 
but  note  that  suffering  ceased  when  the  error 
in  direction  was  corrected  by  Jiimself. 

In  order  to  make  plain  the  reason  to  which 
I  here  allude,  I  must  emphasize  the  feeling,  our 
consciousness  of  the  mortal  source  of  suffering  ; 
for  this  certitude,  coupled  to  our  misbeliefs,  in- 
duces the  great  majority  to  continue  letting 
others  think  for  them.  The  intellect  not  doing 
rightly  its  rightful  work,  its  uncleared  vision  sets 
the  limit  of  the  individual's,  as  of  the  social 
horizon.      If  with  chains  one  should  load  the  feet, 


20  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

could  they  move  ?  Neither  can  the  shackled  in- 
tellect. Sensed  is  the  relation  between  cause 
and  effect.  Upon  the  existence  of  suffering  we 
agree.  The  "  divide  "  is  :  who  is  to  bear  it,  you 
or  I  ?  Ignoble  followers  of  a  lead  hold  it  should 
be,  not  those  who  receive  intellectual  errors,  but 
those  who  give  them.  Too  confused  to  keep 
distinct  and  separate  in  our  thought  that  which 
is  divine  from  that  which  is  simply  legal,  we,  the 
great  majority,  think  them  synonyms,  and  act 
accordingly,  believing  that  not  for  us  is  heaven's 
avenging  decree  ;  for  have  we  not  been  obedient  ? 
have  we  not  shut  our  eyes  ?  The  sun  is  a  fickle 
monster,  is  not  steady  in  welldoing,  acts  errat- 
ically, of  his  smiles  we  are  not  certain,  turns  his 
back  on  earth,  leaves  us  freezing ;  then,  too,  by 
his  fiery  flames  we  are  scorched.  From  the  incon- 
stant way  in  which  the  sun  does  act,  I  conclude 
it  is  "obsessed  "  ;  there  is  a  man  in  it. 

Tracing  wrongs  and  disasters  to  Father  Sol, 
we,  the  great  majority,  by  savage  metaphysics 
swayed,  connect  woes  yet  to  be  attained  with  an 
edict  from  the  skies.      But   to  help  themselves 


AND     MYTHE-MAKERS.  2 1 

out  of  prospective  mire  the  believers  deem  it 
natural  that  future  punishment  should  fall  upon 
the  heads  of  those  who  intellectual  errors  breed  ; 
and  I  have  a  secret  to  declare  which  shows  mat- 
ters down  fine  :  by  their  flocks  shepherds  are 
consigned  to  an  avenging  deity  who,  it  is  as- 
sumed, is  now  lying  in  wait  with  divine  intent, 
vengeance. 

Now,  were  we  real  believers  in  that  process 
(evolution)  which  we  see,  we  should  know  that  in 
the  domain  of  natural  decree  there  is  no  room 
for  mythes.  One  may  suffer  with  but  never  for 
another. 

We  should  further  know,  that  each  one  hav- 
ing powers  makes  progress  only  by  their  unfold- 
ment.  Let  us  hearken  to  the  cry  of  reason;  set 
her  free.  She  will  work  a  brilliant,  bloodless 
revolution  by  great  discoveries  from  the  plain- 
est, simplest  facts.  One  boy  gives  unto  another 
apples,  sour,  unripe ;  is  there  room  for  query  to 
which  falls  the  suffering  gratuity,  which  enjoys 
the  stomach-ache,  him  that  gives,  or  him  that 
takes?  Wherefore  is  there  breach  between  us  and 


22  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

the  Father-Mother  God  ?  Can  it  be,  I  wonder, 
that  the  ditch  is  digged  by  them  that  are  in  it  ? 
And  now  I  think  upon  it,  how  strange  that 
those  nearest  to  Supreme  Wisdom  deal  in  intel- 
lectual rubbish  ?  Oh  pshaw  !  after  all,  I  guess 
that  the  institution  of  legalized  "preach  "  is  not 
divine,  but  simply  human.  Pious  Fathers  of  the 
near  past,  prompted  by  a  mythe  of  individual 
right  divine  to  do  the  work  of  fiend  (when  backed 
by  church  and  state),  did  perpetrate  hideous  social 
blunders,  tied  to  faggot  and  to  stake  wicked  dis- 
senting brothers.  These  God-loving  Fathers 
knew  right  well  that,  faggots  lighted,  neither  pray- 
ers nor  imprecations  availed  to  stay  consumption 
of  their  helpless  prisoner.  Pious  Fathers  had 
"  knowledge  "  of  relations.  All  manifestations 
may  in  classification  be  simplified  down  to  things 
and  to  relations.  Things  by  the  senses  are  per- 
ceived, but  relations  by  effects  are  felt ;  pleas- 
antly when  human,  painfully  when  there  is  sin- 
ful misplacement.  Fire  is  not  man's  natural 
element ;  to  be  in  it  is  to  sin,  is  to  suffer.  Facts 
stand  firm.     Continual  experience  demonstrates 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  23 

that  all  sins  are  forgiven  save  one.  "  Sin  against 
the  Holy  Ghost,"  sin  against  right  relations,  is 
not,  cannot  be,  forgiven  while  persisted  in. 

Prompted  by  the  jural  instinct,  and  with  the 
hope  that  I  may  something  more  than  amuse,  I  in- 
tend to  give  of  the  mythic  art  instances  culled  from 
records  curious  of  our  race's  early  past,  of  those 
days  when  human  deeds  differed  so  from  ours, 
deeds  at  which  you  will  be  shocked.  Still  we 
are  charitable  and  just,  allowance  making  for  the 
conduct  of  those  early  men,  for  then  the  species 
all  were  savage  and  none  were  Christianized. 

I  beg  that  you'll  bear  in  mind  that  to  obtain 
the  matter  I  shall  present  required  laborious  toil, 
much  archeological  work.  Now,  were  I  giving 
a  graphical  description  of  later  ways  of  doing,  dif- 
ferent would  have  been  the  character  of  my  ef- 
fort. For  books  abound,  descriptive,  narrative ; 
the  literary  warehouse  is  crowded,  is  overflowing 
with  expositions  and  with  travels  ;  in  it  a  "sensi- 
tive "  feels  uncomfortable,  feels  attacked  by  a 
whole  menagerie,  untutored,  wild. 

To  picture  a  social  past  it  is  essential  to  have 


24  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

a  clear  perception  of  contact  or  relations.  This 
gives  to  one  a  view  of  "probabilities",  and  the 
mode  of  their  application  to  the  "say-sos"  to 
determine  which  of  them  is  true.  Thus  equipped 
it  is  safe  to  venture,  but  without  these  mental 
stilts  one  is  sure  to  be  "  snowed  under  "  by  the 
chaos  and  confusion  in  the  books.  If  so  pre- 
pared, entrance  within  the  literary  enclosure  is 
no  hazard,  being  qualified  to  reconnoitre  contra- 
dictions, brilliant  guesses,  mistakes,  and  even 
downright  lies. 

You  will  be  surprised,  I  wager,  to  see  how 
many  of  the  statements  (big  bullies)  kill  each 
other  ;  but  with  these  of  course  you  have  noth- 
ing to  do  except  look  calmly  on  and  see  the 
murder ;  lots  of  fun  it  is,  too.  With  others 
there  is  work  to  do,  chopping,  overhauling,  fit- 
ting angles  ;  and  maybe  there 's  chance  for 
pruning  and  grafting.  With  some  assertions  I 
have  found  occasion  for  tender  care,  they  con- 
taining way  clown  deep,  quite  smothered  out  of 
sight,  the  faintest  spark  of  intellectual  light. 
Still,  when    they   arc   sometimes    something   in 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  25 

themselves,  because  of  their  interpretation,  or 
because  of  their  false  position,  the  majority  of 
social  affirmations  are  found  to  be  ridiculous, 
fit  only  to  be  flung  out  of  truth's  sweet  heaven. 
Yet  do  not  despair,  do  honest,  straightforward 
work,  and  you  will  get  something  true,  there- 
fore something  presentable. 

To  give  word-picture  of  the  ways  and  doings 
of  our  ancient  past  did  indeed  call  for  much  glean- 
ing ;  still  in  that  search,  if  I  found  less  literary 
hay,  I  also  found  less  literary  stubble.  If  facts 
precipitated  by  pen  or  picture  do  reflect  the 
state  of  mind,  then  in  early  time  the  people  all 
believed  in  and  practiced  necromancy  ;  acted  as 
though  they  thought  the  constitution  of  an  act 
could  be  altered  by  simply  changing  the  position 
and  direction  of  its  original  initiative  motion  ; 
as  if  black,  starting  from  the  north  or  east, 
could  on  its  line  of  travel  white  become ;  but 
should  the  blackness  turn  and  come  from  south 
or  west,  why,  then  there  would  be  no  such 
marvel. 

To  help  the  matter  out  there  were  forms  and 


26  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTIIES 

ceremonies  which  all  allowed  could  set  aside  — 
not  only  one,  but  all  divine  decrees.  Whether 
the  rites,  having  social  bent,  were  performed  on 
open  square  or  within  four  walls,  the  pictures 
failed  to  disclose,  but  this  thing  was  apparent  : 
one  of  their  number,  master  of  the  ceremonies, 
I  suppose,  appeared  to  act  as  judge,  and  sat,  or 
rather  squat,  from  the  rest  apart,  on  something 
like  a  pedestal  ;  quite  gotten  up  was  he,  though 
not  with  cap  and  gown  ;  his  riggings  were  mere 
toggery. 

I'm  asked  the  picture  story  ?  Well,  truly,  to 
me  it  seemed  to  say,  these  men  had  scarcely 
been  awakened  from  the  sleeping  spiritual  state 
which  held  them  bound  when  they  were  akin  to 
monkeys  and  engaged  in  plays  arboreal.  The 
men  conducting  the  proceedings,  which,  not 
knowing  their  true  nature,  I  am  forced  to  dub 
judicial,  appeared  to  be  divided  into  opposing 
sets,  and  their  fierce  grimaces  gave  to  the  whole 
affair  a  look  of  strife  unholy  ;  a  show,  if  not 
gladiatorial  in  name,  at  least  in  nature.  When 
I  have  told  you  all  I  learned,  you  will  agree  with 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  2J 

me  that  though  disjointed  is  the  hieroglyphic 
form  of  narrative,  yet  by  a  picture's  silent 
speech  much  is  made  known. 

But  before  I  further  go  in  this  direction,  I 
must  atone  for  an  omission  by  giving  explan- 
ation of  the  purpose  of  those  judicial  (  ? )  pro- 
ceedings I  found  pictured  ;  later  on  I  intend  to 
deal  with  their  style  and  character.  If  in  a  fit 
of  passion  or  for  any  reason  known  to  savage 
mind,  one  man  did  kill  his  fellow,  then  upon 
this  slayer,  wretched  victim  of  forces  within  and 
forces  without,  pounced  society's  male'  thought 
and  action,  and,  by  some  means  and  in  some 
manner,  butchered  the  poor  wretch,  who,  unlike 
itself,  had  killed  without  deliberation,  killed 
without  calm  reasoning's  guidance,  killed  with- 
out acquainting  intellect.  When  adjudged 
guilty  of  foul  murder,  the  helpless  creature  had 
no  hope,  stood  no  kind  of  show  ;  for  how  could 
he,  with  revengeful  brothers  bent  upon  his 
slaughter,  each  one  in  his  own  soul  a  murderer 
of  some  degree,  made  so  by  thoughts  black  in 
their  character  ? 


28  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

And  now  vve  have  reached  a  peak,  a  social 
act,  from  which  to  get  good  view  of  intellectual 
ravines  and  social  chasms.  From  the  practical 
necromancy  of  these  ancients  we  infer  their  be- 
lief in  the  magic  art,  belief  in  its  power,  through 
forms,  to  cleanse  from  bloodstains,  provided  the 
heinous  act  be  collective  in  its  registration. 
That  the  Lord  should  have  his  own,  these  sav- 
ages were  anxious  ;  therefore,  when  the  murder 
was  of  the  unsocialized  kind,  after  engaging  in 
certain  purifying  rites  facetiously  styled  "  forms 
of  justice,"  there  would  be  deliverance  of  this 
monstrosity  :  "  our  fellow-sinner  we  find  unfit 
for  earth,  we  find  him  to  be  fit  for  heaven." 

I  know  I'm  giving  crass  absurdities,  and  I 
fear  you'll  think  me  chaffing  ;  not  so,  I'm  gravely 
in  earnest,  and  do  protest  that  this  horror  was 
all  too  often  perpetrated.  But  these  things  by 
men  are  done  only  while  they  are  savages. 
Those  untamed  men,  ferocious  wretches,  thought 
themselves  savants,  and  knew  right  well  the  ins 
and  outs  of  what  they  were  about  ;  out  of  un- 
skillful hands  they  boldly  took  the  God-appointed 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  29 

hour  of  death,  took  it  by  sending  heavenward  a 
brother.  Now  this,  to  say  the  least,  was  ill- 
mannered  on  the  part  of  society  ;  it  was  bad 
breeding  to  force  into  the  unseen  mansion  a 
guest  unbidden.  Had  those  low-bred  creatures 
known  aught  of  etiquette,  then,  prior  to  such 
proceedings,  they  would  through  reason  have 
consulted  the  rulers  of  the  divinely  ordered  home ; 
learned  "  if  it  were  agreeable  "  and  in  conformity 
with  mighty  wishes.  This  done,  how  different 
had  been  their  action  !  Society  had  found  salva- 
tion from,  not  through,  a  bloody  deed.  Incredible 
that  creatures  of  our  species  used  their  brains  so 
little,  imagined  that  by  any  kind  of  means  or 
monkeying  they  could  reverse  nature's  stern  de- 
crees of  what  is  right,  of  what  is  humanly  natural. 

In  their  description  of  a  plant,  an  edible,  I 
should  expect  to  find  the  fungus  at  its  root  pic- 
tured as  its  luscious  fruit. 

Connected  with  their  wicked,  foolish  ways 
were  beliefs,  lack  of  thought,  almost  funny  ;  their 
religion  decried  "  mere  morality,"  taught  that 
salvation  came  through  miraculous  transforma- 


30  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

tion,  the  result  of  a  blind  acceptance  of  a  creed  ; 
but,  equal  to  the  occasion,\vith  forethought  it  was 
affirmed  that,  while  on  earth  believers  did  so- 
journ, over  their  blackness  mere  belief  was  im- 
piously inactive. 

The  promised  revolution,  whiteness  of  the 
creed-accepted  character,  was  to  come,  however, 
after  death.  About  this  miracle  they  seemed 
certain,  because  beyond  the  range  of  mortal 
touch  and  vision  the  time  and  place  for  its  ful- 
filment were  affixed  "  out  of  sight."  For  all  alike, 
acceptance  of  a  particular  creed  was  deemed  safe 
ferriage  to  heaven.  And  yet  minds  were  blank, 
society's  great  arms  were  still,  when  to  make  the 
solitary  slayer  fit  on  earth  to  live,  skilful  motions 
were  most  needed.  What  poverty  of  thought 
was  theirs  !  Nowhere  found  I  it  recorded  of 
their  individual  murderer  :  "  I  refuse  to  accept 
the  benefits  of  society's  magic  purge."  For  in- 
consistencies reason  is  not  at  fault ;  she  is  at  her 
post,  is  no  deserter.  Had  those  gross  mortals 
hearkened  unto  nature's  logic,  caught  deep  mean- 
ings,   felt    the  law's    great    edict   through    the 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  3  I 

oneness  of  all  motion  ;  had  they  watched  the 
driftings  of  the  air,  the  floatings  of  the  vapor, 
they  had  known  that  man,  released  from  gross 
flesh,  etherealized,  can  come  and  go  with 
ease,  can  travel  somewhat  as  he  pleases  ;  had 
known  it  was  reasonable  to  expect  that  one  badly 
treated  before  birth,  and  after  too,  should,  through 
attraction's  lawful  force  impelling,  choose  to 
mingle  with  familiar  scenes,  choose  to  haunt  un- 
seen his  executioner  —  society,  unhuman  and 
bloody. 

Upon  the  style  and  character  of  early  judicial 
proceedings,  upon  customs  connected  with  the 
office  and  its  function,  and  upon  the  manners  of 
the  judge  and  jury  as  well  as  him  they  called 
prosecuting  attorney,  let  us  now  proceed  to  hold 
our  promised  conversation. 

First,  however,  before  we  start  the  talk,  our 
minds  should  be  refreshed  by  certain  facts.  The 
people  were  not  socially  united,  were  politically 
divided  into  groups,  and  of  these  it  may  with 
truth  be  said,  that  in  their  points  of  contact,  in 
their  corners  on  each  other,  of  the  angles  made, 


32  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

not  one  was  "right."  Empires,  monarchies 
there  were,  and  a  something  which  the  men  with 
their  crooked  ideas  called  a  republic.  A  mongrel 
thing,  truly,  and  so  out  of  sorts  with  the  name 
it  bore  that  to  have  pictured  it  correctly,  sym- 
bolically, would  be  as  an  ugly  and  deceptive 
cur. 

Sometimes  the  high  officials  were  elected  by 
the  men,  who,  with  ultra-barbarous  thought, 
styled  themselved  "the  people."  "La  Cou- 
vade."*  Great  method!  By  it  men  capture 
babies,  get  possessions  unnaturally.  So  well 
equipped  for  heroic  work,  we  should  scarce  ex- 
pect men  to  balk  at  the  appropriation  of  a  word, 
which,  though  little,  yet  for  one-sex  wearing  is  a 
full  size  too  big.  Sometimes  offices  were  filled 
by  appointment  ;  but  after  all  it  mattered  not 
which  way  the  tree  was  bent,  this  side  or  that, 
for  its  trunk  was  girdled.  The  difference  for 
the  people  was  not  in  the  corruption,  nor  in  the 
amount,  nor  yet  in  the  way  venality  was  man- 

*  A  mode  by  which  a  savage  father  appropriated  the  new-born  child  ;  after 
the  birth  he  assumed  invalidism,  the  mother  going  about  as  usual.  See 
"  Researches  into  the  Early  History  of  Mankind,"  by  E.  B.  Tylor,  p.  288. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  33 

aged,  but  which  political  party  manned  society's 
piratical  cruiser. 

Under  such  conditions  we  agree  that  justice 
never  once  brought  forth  a  living  son;  invariably 
miscarried.  Nor  is  this  surprising,  when  in 
each  human  ( ? )  breast  were  striving  good  and 
evil,  God  and  the  devil ;  and  from  the  conduct  of 
those  men  no  doubt  exists  as  to  the  mastery  — 
as  to  which,  in  that  struggle  of  spiritual  her- 
maphroditism, was  the  one  to  come  off  victor. 

How  different  now  !  The  law's  administration 
is  lawful ;  and  different  too  are  the  laws.  Equality 
reigns  supreme.  No  longer  penal,the  thought 
is  human.  The  purpose  of  law  administration 
is  both  philosophicial  and  righteous;  and  of  this 
be  assured,  the  methods  are  scientifically  hu- 
mane, the  object  being  to  discover  and  to  un- 
fold the  God  within. 

How  came  the  change  about  ?  By  this  ques- 
tion I  perceive  we  have  in  you  a  stranger ;  from 
the  Orient,  I  presume.  The  causes  of  our  social 
revolution  are  no  secret,  and  later  on,  when  com- 
pelled, I  will  tell.    Blest  are  we ;  no  longer  compe- 


34  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTIIES 

tition,  the  heinous  thing,  but  fraternal  socialism, 
with  its  humanizing  godly  creed,  evolution. 
Those  benighted  folks  had  an  awful  belief  in 
supremacy  of  evil,  supremacy  of  the  devil ;  had 
in  God  no  humanizing  hope.  They  really 
thought  competition  could  not  be  helped,  that  it 
was  right  and  to  humans  natural.  At  this  I'm 
not  surprised,  for  they  were  swayed  by  a  creed 
whose  undercurreut  made  not  for  the  good  in 
them,  but  for  the  evil. 

In  their  books  on  moral  rescue  you  will  find 
the  point  I  raise  made  evident,  for  at  all  times 
upon  salvation  of  an  individual  only  were  they 
bent.  No  carry-all  was  their  deliverance  boat ; 
it  fulfilled  aristocratic  notions,  was  too  narrow 
for  a  wholesale  work,  the  direction  of  its  sail  al- 
ways being  a  "  him"  to  be  taken  from  his  bad  com- 
panions. Now,  wherefore  did  the  thought  not 
occur  to  do  no  bungling  surgery,  but  skillful 
work,  by  taking  bad  companions  too,  thus  mak- 
ing a  good  job  complete.  The  reason  for  their 
myopic  thought  was  a  belief  in  which  the  devil,  a 
philosophic  necessity,  posed  a  permanent  fixture. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  35 

Among  their  customs  I  found  courts  of 
equity  and  courts  of  law  separate  ;  equity  was 
specialized,  which  must  be  admitted  as  relevant 
evidence  of  stupidity  or  rascality,  or  both.  Ex- 
perience teaches  us  that  when  the  work  of 
courts  is  application  of  the  "  common  law, " 
then  they  are  neither  more  nor  less  than  courts 
of  equity.  Unaccustomed  to  a  separation  so 
unnatural,  I  was  much  disturbed  by  this  strange 
one,  was  overwhelmed,  but  I  rallied  quickly  and 
by  patient  careful  search  I  unearthed  and 
got  the  reason  why ;  'twas  no  Holy  Grail  I 
sought. 

To  make  evident  the  cause  for  separation  I 
must  revert  to  movements  which  logically  pre- 
cede statutory  law  administration.  To  a  few 
of  their  number  those  rude  men  consigned  the 
basic  part  of  society's  general  housework.  I 
must  not  neglect  to  mention  that  during  my 
investigation  into  the  political  aspect  of  early 
nations,  not  once  was  trace  of  a  democracy 
found  ;  and  their  ideas  of  a  republic  are  positively 
amusing,  reminding  one  of  a  scene  at  mesmeric 


36  SOCIO-ECONOMIC     MYTHES 

show,  of  a  man  with  a  broomstick  lovingly 
thinking  it  a  baby. 

I'm  quite  alive  with  the  thought  of  what  in- 
teresting work  in  practical  psychology  it  would 
be  to  explore  their  mental  structure,  arrive,  if 
possible,  at  an  intelligent  explanation  of  such 
self-hypnotization,  by  locating  its  objective 
cause.  Aphasia,  you  know,  is  traceable  to  a 
cerebral  lesion.  Now,  I  hope  you  will  not  mis- 
construe my  words  by  thinking  that  I  have 
mistaken  their  trouble  for  a  form  of  that  dis- 
tressing malady.  I  am  aware  that  their  disorder 
was  different  in  its  kind,  still  I  presume  you 
don't  deny  it  has  with  aphasia  a  point  of  con- 
tact in  their  defective  intellection,  as  evinced  by 
the  persistent  misuse  of  the  word  republic. 
Had  their  bodies  been  embalmed,  possibly  we 
might  have  been  supplied  with  material  for  our 
scientific  purpose ;  still,  from  what  I  know  of 
biology  and  the  home  of  thought,  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  under  dissection  their  brains  would  after  all 
turn  out  merely  cancellated  tissue. 

In  that  particular  century,  the  numbering  of 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  7>7 

which  it  suits  me  to  forget,  that  odd  political 
group  thought  it  had  the  actual  baby,  but  their 
individual  actions  towards  each  other  show  that 
republican  reality  went  down  not  much  deeper 
than  the  name. 

The  means  of  ordainment  for  the  mighty  social 
function,  and  the  mode  of  differentiation  of  those 
basic  few  ?  This  your  inquiry  ?  Now  indeed 
you  have  struck  bottom,  and  I  beg  you  will  a 
word  of  warning  take,  unless  you  wish  to  mire. 
Waive  this  question  or  amend  it,  lay  it  on  the 
table.  Won't  ?  So  persistent  ?  Have  it  then, 
a  narration  of  what  is  unseemly,  and  on  your 
head  falls  a  retribution. 

The  means  and  measures  for  the  ordainment, 
for  the  differentiation  into  the  nation's  legisla- 
tors were,  to  say  the  least,  unmatched,  unique  ; 
not  because  of  merit,  not  because  of  special 
unction  for  the  work,  did  they  reach  the  pin- 
nacle of  the  nation's  high  estate.  Furthermore, 
"I  am  permitted  to  tell  "  that  various  varied, 
queer  elements  entered  into  the  selection,  nomi- 
nation, and  election  of  the  candidates.     It  was 


38  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

the  habit  of  the  chosen  few  to  meet  regularly 
upon  a  consecrated  spot,  celebrated  for  doings 
not  at  all  times  the  most  moral,  and  while  there 
engage  in  a  sort  of  work  which  figuratively  may 
be  called  the  game  of  legislative  battledoor  and 
shuttlecock.  True,  themselves  allowed  it  was 
framing  resolutions,  passing  laws,  under  condi- 
tions orderly,  and  with  manner  circumspect. 

As  I  reflect  on  what  I  read,  and  upon  the 
variegated  incidents  connected  with  the  main 
events,  to  my  help  comes  simile's  kind  aid. 
Men  in  squads  along  a  line  made  up  of  election 
points  ;  in  time  each  squad,  by  a  sort  of  rotary 
measure,  turned  the  well-oiled  wheel  of  con- 
gressional factory.  No  accident  recorded  ;  I 
found  these  operatives  were  protected  from 
danger  while  manufacturing  law-products,  com- 
modities, which  turned  out  to  be  the  people's 
opportunities  worked  up  into  bags  for  pluto- 
cratic uses. 

The  logic  of  events,  however,  has  shown  that 
the  work  of  those  skilful  operatives  was  not 
durable,  not  lasting,  for  if  the  warp  was  true 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  39 

and  good,  the  filling-in  was  sure  to  be  rotten 
raw  material,  gotten  through  by  help  of  knock- 
down argument.  In  political  economy,  their 
great  science,  I  found,  in  explanation  of  this  in- 
stability of  legislative  product,  no  mention  made 
of  capitalistic  caprice,  capitalistic  will,  which 
was  the  more  surprising,  as  for  all  eccen- 
tricities of  socio-economic  production,  this  was 
their  invariable  mode  of  accounting ;  therefore 
about  the  matter  I  am  still  agog. 

Their  annals  said,  to  one  who  read  between 
the  lines,  that  during  legislative  labor  strenuous 
efforts  were  made  to  work  stealthily  and  to 
make  no  noise.  Kindly  that  intention  was, 
benevolent  and  modest  too ;  wished  not  to 
annoy  outsiders,  sought  not  to  attract  attention. 
But  the  time  of  great  noise  came,  the  bursting 
of  these  bags. 

It  occurred  in  this  wise.  The  packing  had 
been  skillful,  crowding  in  and  in  ;  machinery 
was  used  —  banking.  Congestion  is  a  danger- 
ous thing  ;  means  too  much  of  the  circulating 
fluid  in  one  place  ;  means  superflous  flesh  with 


40  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

an  enfeebled  heart  action.  To  the  individual 
the  result  is  apoplexy  and  a  journey  to  the  skies. 
Society  came  out  of  its  attack ;  hers  was  no  in- 
dividual concern.  The  pathology  was  different 
too  ;  the  place  of  her  vitality  was  not  at  all  con- 
gested ;  its  condition,  the  reverse  of  that,  was 
anemic.  Within  the  social  body  matters  had 
solidified,  interfering  with  its  healthful  circula- 
tion, with  its  hearty  action.  Life,  for  the  use- 
ful organs,  was  made  one  continuous,  needless 
struggle  by  conditions  foreign  to  the  social 
working  powers.  Conditions  had  to  die ;  and  but 
for  barbarity  interfering  with  what  was  natural 
by  maintaining  fossiliferous  social  structures 
that  should  have  been  cremated  long  before, 
individuals  had  no  need  to.  Society  is  living  ; 
hers  no  resurrection,  nor  yet  a  reincarnation 
affair,  but  a  veritable  new  birth  was  fraternal 
socialism. 

To  return  in  thought  to  days  of  social  com- 
petition. Of  them  I  barely  wish  to  note  an  up- 
rising like  bubbles  on  the  surface  of  water  in 
commotion.     The  people  sensed  their  true  rela- 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  4 1 

tion,  called  these  social  geysers  "  Law  and  (no) 
Order  Societies."  Dirty,  tyrannous,  their 
doings. 

Do  you  doubt  that  there  was  ample  and  suf- 
ficient cause  for  equity's  distinguishment  ?  Was 
it  not  honored  in  the  breach,  in  its  separation 
from  courts  administering  the  statutory  laws  ? 

In  our  discursive  journey  we  have  reached  a 
junction  point,  another  stage,  into  which,  thanks 
to  invention's  aid,  we  slip  without  alighting,  and 
proceed  to  render  polite  attention  to  matters 
connected  with  the  law  administration  of  those 
early  folks.  The  jury  system  was  their  boast; 
they  said  that  "  matters  by  it  got  way  down,  even 
to  the  people."  Doubtless,  when  new,  this  state- 
ment of  the  institution's  powers  and  possibilities 
was  entirely  true,  but  in  the  era  whose  doings  I 
am  recounting,  it  had  become,  through  abuse 
and  trickery,  simply  the  toy  ideal  of  an  imagined 
democracy. 

At  that  time  the  jury  was  composed  of  men 
only.  You  say  truly  such  monopoly  in  social 
matters   was  wilful  violation  of  division's  true 


42  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

principle,  division's  guiding  rule  ;  but  anon,  in 
the  requirement  made,  you  will  discover  ade- 
quate reason  for  male  appropriation  of  the  office 
and  the  functions  of  a  juryman.  For  in  con- 
nection with  the  selection  there  was  this  phe- 
nomenal demand  :  no  ideas  on  the  subject-matter 
held  in  hand  for  their  solution.  With  these 
terms  each  candidate  was  expected  to  comply 
without  skulking,  was  expected  to  bring  abso- 
lute vacuity.  Now,  women  have  ideas.  In  the 
act  of  their  special  creation,  that  "  rib  "*  was 
not  anesthetized,  but  underwent  such  transform- 
ation that  with  the  essentials  of  a  jury  examin- 
ation women  could  not  contend.  Unto  men, 
however,  nature  had  been  kinder ;  to  high  de- 
mands they  were  fully  equal  ;  therefore  came 
it  naturally  about  that  they  alone  "filled  the 
bill." 

That  exclusive  privileges    are  unnatural,  by 
intuition  is  at  once  perceived,  by  reason  is  dis- 

*  So  possessed  are  our  men  with  the  idea  that  to  take  advantage  of 
each  other  is  wise,  that  Omnipotence,  Omniscience,  God,  is  by  them  repre- 
sented as  first  causing  Adam  to  sleep  (this  avoided  resistance  to  the  invasion 
of  natural  rights)  and  then  appropriating  an  organic  part  of  the  Adamic 
property ;  God  doing  ....  that  good  may  come  thereby. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  43 

cerned ;  but,  being  womanly,  intuition  was  in 
bad  repute  ;  those  men  had  no  use  for  intuition, 
and  upon  reason  made  small  requisition.  If  in 
the  course  of  rigid  examination  for  the  jury  of- 
fice, the  selected  betrayed  a  thought,  were  that 
thought  as  hazy  as  the  milky  way,  it  was  all- 
sufficient  to  secure  him  a  peremptory  rejection ; 
the  examiners  surmising,  feeling  certain,  that 
beneath  it,  in  disguise,  lurked  a  woman. 

From  tiny  anthill  to  towering  mountain,  from 
gentle  rivulet's  little  ripple  to  angry  ocean's 
mighty  dashing  wave,  things  great  and  small 
have  their  causes  outside  as  well  as  inside  them- 
selves. Knowing  this,  in  thought  have  I 
wrestled,  have  inductive  effort  made,  to  dis- 
cover not  alone  the  character,  but  substance, 
underlying  that  phenomenal  demand.  Do  you 
wish  to  see  how  in  scientific  analysis  I  succeed, 
each  step  testing  ?  I'm  working  for  no  prize, 
nor  with  thought  of  any  kind  of  corner  ;  my  sole 
reward  lies  in  satisfaction. 


44  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 


CHAPTER  II. 

MYTHES  AND  MYTHE-MAKERS 

(Continued). 

CONTINUING  the  subject,  I  now  invite 
the  public  to  come  and  weigh  results  of 
my  most  careful  labor,  which  it  will  find  in  the 
explanation  given  of  that  no-idea  requisition 
made  by  men  upon  men  in  centuries  past  and 
gone.  The  law-hewers  (so  called),  at  the  time 
of  which  we  are  speaking,  ignorant  of  simple  an- 
atomical, simple  psychological  facts,  unvisited 
by  thoughts  of  unity,  thoughts  of  right  relation, 
to  the  truths  of  evolution  being  strangers,  formed 
their  judgments  from  the  outside  of  things  ; 
therefore  from  their  minds  was  projected  this 
pure  creation.  Some  craniums  were  empty  res- 
ervoirs ;  such  made  able  jurymen.  Easily  the 
anomaly  was  explained, — special  creation,  miracle 
for  judicial  delectation.  On  this  hypothesis 
(sound  foundation)  secure  they  builded,  by  argu- 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  45 

ing  in  this  wise  :  it  must  be  so,  else  no  room 
within  the  cranium  for  us  to  pour  in  wisdom, 
knowledge.  Are  you  not  overflowing  with  ad- 
miration for  their  sagacity,  their  power,  displayed 
in  bending  stubborn  facts,  realities,  to  fit  judicial 
needs  ? 

Here  in  this  connection  many  things  are 
pressing  for  attention,  to  one  of  which,  bygone 
courtly  manners,  it  is  time  to  pay  respectful 
homage.  Were  I  gifted  with  lawyer-like  re- 
sources I  might  promise  you  amusement,  but 
I'm  only  a  plain  body,  with  intellectual  powers 
just  equal  to  a  wrestle  with  matter  of  fact  in  its 
simplicity  ;  accordingly  your  entertainment  will 
lack  in  variety  the  richness  of  a  pantomime.  To 
be  frank  with  you,  my  intention  is  simply  an  at- 
tack upon  the  mind,  requiring  no  side  show,  no 
device  to  call  the  laughing  muscles  into  active 
play.  In  presenting  an  explanation,  this  inten- 
tion leads  me  to  draw  inferences  that  are  natu- 
ral, warranted  by  the  actual  condition  of  things. 

Given,  their  assumption  that  empty  skulls 
make  able  jurymen ;  given,  too,  this  fact,  that 


46  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

certain  truths  are  by  us  intuitively  perceived, 
in  this  connection  we  find  ample  cause  for  the 
uncouth  deportment,  the  abominable  clownish 
manners  displayed,  especially  by  him  they  called 
prosecuting  attorney  ;  behavior  that  transformed 
their  halls  of  justice  into  something  akin  to  a 
zoological  cage.  Those  judicial  toilers  realized 
that  to  do  effective  work  strong  impressions  must 
be  made  upon  the  men  legally  installed  as  lis- 
teners. In  the  query,  how  to  do  it,  how  to  make 
impressive  stamp  on  what  they  had  sworn  in  as 
actual  vacancy,  they  were  at  sea. 

Timely  aid,  however,  came  in  instinct's  helpful 
promptings.  True,  they  argued  somewhat  in 
the  fashion  adopted  by  us  regulars  of  the  medical 
profession,  when  administering  one  of  our  "  shot- 
gun "  multiplicity  prescriptions,  for  they  allowed 
that,  of  a  big  noise,  a  show,  some  of  it  must, 
through  ears,  through  eyes,  get  in  ;  some  of  it 
must  somewhere  stick  ;  therefore,  can  one  count 
it  strange  that  they  figured  in  contortions,  and 
made  hideous  grimaces  wonderful  to  see  ?  I 
think  not.     But  with  reverence  bow  your  heads 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  47 

while  I  whisper  this  to  you  :  the  case  was  one 
of  voluntary  martyrdom.  Their  heroic  sacrifice 
of  the  human  way  of  acting  had  for  its  end  and 
aim  the  cause  of  justice  ;  it  was  to  advance  the 
claims  of  right.  Well-meaning  misguided  folk, 
their  good  intentions  naught  availed,  but  their 
generalship  did  mischievous  work.  Madame 
Justice  by  it  was  made  sick,  was,  in  fact,  dis- 
figured. Extant  pictures,  kept  as  curiosities  in 
our  judicial  museums,  show  that  ever  after,  her 
nervous  system  being  shattered,  she  went,  dur- 
ing the  judicial  orgies,  protected,  went  blind- 
folded, which  reveals  to  whomsoever  wills  to 
dig,  a  mine  rich  in  rare  kind  of  ore  :  truth. 

Another  factor  in  the  cause  of  that  no-idea- 
qualification  demand  was  a  desire,  indeed  to  be 
exact  one  should  say  a  necessity,  for  matching  a 
pre-existing  stupidity,  that  of  the  judge.  A  fine 
appreciation  of  high  art  existed,  therefore  the 
people  felt  that  a  match  between  judicial  intel- 
lects, a  match  of  judge  and  jury,  should  not  be 
a  failure,  but  one  marriage  true. 

This  I  take  to  be  the  real  reason  for  examina- 


48  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

tions  so  severe,  for  the  watchful  rigid  care,  lest 
by  stealth  a  woman  took  the  jury  chair,  and,  by 
this  mischance,  within  their  hollow  oaks  ideas 
began  to  sprout. 

In  their  official  decrees  it  was  not  the  custom 
of  those  judges  to  expose  domestic  goods. 
Though  having  in  existing  facts  abundant  ma- 
terial on  which  to  base  decisions,  they  yet  pre- 
ferred to  import  their  judicial  wares  from  the 
grave  ;  and  thinking  that  whatever  was  is  right, 
they  travelled  backward  over  social  hill  and  dale  to 
find  a  something  that  had  long  been  buried  and 
was  petrified  or  rotting.  Undaunted,  the  sac- 
rilegious wretches  an  untimely  resurrection 
wrought,  a  brand  new  air  giving  to  their  grave 
affair  by  christening  it  "judicial  precedent." 
Such  transaction  meant  nothing  less,  if  nothing 
more,  than  a  union  between  a  living  case  and  a 
dead  moral  proceeding.  Being  tied  by  judicial 
fancy,  one  may  be  sure  the  nuptial  knot  was  not 
"gordian."  To  him  who  is  unguided  by  reason 
all  things  are  possible,  therefore  grandfather  may 
be  made  to  don    his  baby  clothes.       Ah  !  but 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  49 

wasn't  it  befitting  for  those  judges  to  wear  head- 
gear, and  by  it  drape  the  home  of  courtly 
sagacity. 

Detecting  in  their  use  of  "  precedent  "  the 
real  purpose — to  save  from  thinking — then  was 
disclosed  to  my  perception  the  meaning  of  that 
squat  position  in  the  picture  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred, and  I  serenely  thought,  surely  an  artistic 
nature  may  feel  actual,  even  innocent  pleasure 
in  something,  though  it  be  akin  to  the  hideous, 
if  that  something  makes  apparent  the  law  of 
symmetrical  relationship  between  the  state  of 
body  and  the  creature's  state  of  mind.  If  one 
of  the  legal  fraternity  during  resuscitation  of  the 
mummy  should  plead  for  disinfectant,  protesting 
that  he  discovered  a  disagreeable  odor,  forthwith 
he  was  dubbed  violator  of  their  ethical  code,  and 
without  further  parley  was  ejected  from  their 
order  as  an  anarchistic  disturber  of  their  healthy 
peace.  Things  are  changed  ;  when  women  ac- 
cepted the  judicial  chair,  among  the  rubbish 
cleared  out  went  the  pestiferous  judicial  prece- 
dent. 


50  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Babies  holding  fast  to  nurses'  fingers  make 
attempts  to  walk.  To  perform  the  walking  feat 
they  need  help.  Babies  are  most  wise.  The 
male  mind,  being  fanciful,  requires  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? 
Being  orthodox,  it  believed  in  the  resurrection 
of  the  carnal.  With  keen  perception,  woman 
knows  that,  in  the  backward  travel,  dead-idea- 
"snatchers"  have  no  real  stopping  place  until 
logical  surmising  reaches  the  earliest  evidence 
in  time  of  an  expressed  social  relation.  Our 
women  judges  look  not  behind  ;  they  know  that 
the  beckoning  hand  of  progress  is  before.  The 
construction  of  the  joints  causes  the  body's 
movement  to  be  forward,  and  the  eyes  are 
placed  in  front  to  aid  progressive  motion. 

Looking  backward  has  its  place  ;  not  to  nar- 
row down  ideas,  not  to  shrink  up  deeds.  From 
its  perspective  view  we  may  a  lesson  take,  may 
know  the  fact  of  self-existent  powers,  internal 
possibilities.  This  knowledge  ours,  from  its 
possession  flows  expansion  in  ideas  and  decrees. 

Our  women  judges  look  before.  The  mother- 
thought  sweeps  the  entire  social  circle,  stops  at 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  5  I 

the  horizon.  Women  judges  have  no  need  to 
hunt  up  faded  patterns,  can  construct  their  own 
decisions ;  but  then  women  take  tuition  from 
within,  women  use  their  reason. 

Indeed  you  are  a  little  "tot"  to  ask  such  big 
questions  as,  what  is  intuition  ?  what  is  reason  ? 
You  say  that  you  are.  .  Quite  old  enough,  I  am 
sure,  to  digest  some  portions  of  mystery's  facts. 
No  harm  to  my  little  listener  shall  come  from  the 
insoluble  character  of  the  mental  food  I  offer  her. 
Well  then,  little  woman  in  search  of  knowledge, 
we  must  first  make  ourselves  sure  of  certain  gen- 
eral truths.  This  gives  to  the  understanding  a 
firm  footing.  Will  you  deem  it  all  unnecessary 
if  I  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  space  there 
is  just  yourself  and  things  outside  of  you  ? 
Shortly,  in  a  general  way,  we  shall  see  that  this 
environment  consists  of  objects  and  of  relations. 

Standing  out  upon  the  lawn,  raising  eyes,  we 
look  as  far  as  we  can  ;  still  not  great  the  visual 
travel  ;  soon  shut  off  is  sight  by  the  kissing  of 
the  earth  and  sky  —  by  the  horizon.  Physics 
tells  us  why.     When  at  Washington  last  spring, 


52  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

do  you  recollect  that  I  called  your  attention  to 
the  difference  between  our  range  of  sight  from 
the  dome  of  the  capitol  and  the  top  of  Washing- 
ton monument?  When  older  grown,  and  you 
have  gone  abroad,  from  Eiffel  tower  the  visual 
distance  will  be  great  compared  with  these.  The 
difference  in  extent  of  vision,  and  in  amount  of 
things  perceived,  you  find,  depends  upon  the 
height  of  the  pinnacle  reached.  From  this 
Romola  can  learn  a  lesson  if  she  choose  ;  but 
at  present  I  wish  to  impress  upon  her  mind  the 
fact,  that,  although  existences  are  divided  into 
the  seen  and  the  unseen,  yet  when  diligently 
pursued,  much  of  the  latter  yields  itself  up  to 
sight. 

Did  this  little  girl  grow  eagle  wings,  many 
things  now  veiled  by  distance  might  by  her 
bright  eyes  be  seen  ;  but  she  must  not  forget 
that  behind  and  within  all  things  that  may  be 
known  are  hidden  the  Powers.  By  doings  only 
docs  the  absolute  reveal  itself;  all  attempts  to 
strip  it  of  natural  clothing  are  a  waste  of  time 
and    energy,   for  it  is  no   "nude";  but  yet  to 


AND     MYTHE-MAKERS.  53 

personify  the  absolute  is  the  work  of  savage 
philosophy.  Now,  my  little  delver,  true  daughter 
of  inductive,  of  scientific  Mother  Eve,  acquaint 
me,  please,  with  your  ideas  as  to  the  meaning  of 
the  knowledge-fact.  In  truth  I  am  surprised  ; 
your  sense  of  it  gives  forth  no  uncertain  glim- 
mer ;  but  let  us  deeper  go,  and  to  your  present 
state  of  knowledge  something  add. 

Were  this  chair  and  table  taken  from  the 
room,  the  part  of  your  mind  by  them  occupied 
would  not,  because  of  the  removal,  become  a 
blank,  for  having  knowledge  of  them  and  their 
uses,  you  call  them  into  mind  just  by  thinking 
how  they  looked.  Knowledge,  then,  consists  of 
mental  pictures. 

And  now  the  little  sage  is  asking  how  knowl- 
edge is  obtained,  how  the  "  love-knot  "  is  tied. 
Not  alone  by  the  spiritual  entities,  intuition, 
reason,  unseen  forms  of  master  workman,  per- 
ceptive power,  is  knowledge  gained,  for  nature 
has  the  mortal  well  equipped.  There  are  the 
senses.  And  yet,  Romola,  our  knowledge  of 
realities  is  small.     To  make  profitable  this  pur- 


54  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

suit  in  which  we  are  engaged,  it  is  essential  to 
have  clear  ideas  on  a  cardinal  point,  that  of 
direction,  for  when  perception  goes  not  straight, 
but  on  the  bias —  But  never  mind,  by  and  by  this 
little  girl  will  find  that  this  is  what's  the  matter 
with  the  practical.  Always  present,  powerful  in 
its  silent  workings  is  direction.  What  is  the 
meaning  of  the  weather-vane  ? 

Nationalism  having  eliminated  money  profits 
from  the  object  of  production,  seldom  is  there 
need  to  darn  ;  but  by  this  interesting  recreation 
you've  learned  that  weaving  threads  in  and  out, 
crosswise  of  those  placed  in  length,  you  have  a 
fabric  made.  I  will  build  on  this  experience  no 
cob-house,  but  a  sound  comparison,  calling  per- 
ception of  things  and  of  relations  the  warp  and 
woof  of  knowledge,  just  reminding  you  that  while 
the  weaving  process  gives  substance,  it  also  gives 
to  mental  product  the  texture  of  its  character ; 
therefore,  to  know  realities  one  must  look  for 
facts  in  two  directions.  And  now,  by  way  of 
lesson,  try  to  think  of  something  standing  by  it- 
self, alone. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  55 

To  be  sure  you  cannot  do  it,  for  now  look, 
your  feet  are  on  the  floor,  the  floor  is  made  se- 
cure by  foundation  to  the  house  placed  on  the 
ground.  The  house  is  safe  ;  your,  feet,  the  floor, 
foundation,  earth,  and  house  are  tilings,  while 
the  connection  they  bear  to  one  another  is  a  re- 
lation. To  make  things  plainer,  let  us  take  this 
string  of  different  beads.  Don't  you  see  that 
not  a  bead  stands  alone  ;  the  string  runs  through 
them,  holding  them  together.  Still,  do  not  ig- 
nore the  fact  that  as  a  means  of  illustration  we 
have  used  this  string  simply  to  objectivize  that 
which  is  unseen  :  a  relation.  Though  relation  is 
not  seen,  yet  its  consequences  are  both  seen  and  fcft. 

In  order  that  a  future  great  philosopher  may 
not  limitations  make  in  her  thought  of  the  extent 
and  location  of  relation,  I  now  invite  this  little 
girl  to  a  visual  feast  of  the  starry  skies.  This 
evening  let  us  fill  our  eyes,  get  perception  of  the 
vastness  of  the  universe,  and  the  littleness  of 
the  earth.  Gazing  upward  this  is  what  we  see : 
the  moon  grandly  piercing  clouds,  always  coming 
our   from  shadows,  beautiful  and  glorious.      In 


56  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

fullness  steadily  she  moves,  faithful  to  the  earth. 
There's  a  woman  in  the  moon,  not  a  man.  Of 
the  relation  between  our  earth  and  the  sun  you 
have  heard,  how  our  planet  moves  around  that 
great  orb,  though  not  to  circumvent  ;  the  cause 
of  their  motional  relation  is  a  true  parental  con- 
nection. The  sun  gives  to  the  earth  light  and 
heat  ;  one  great  reason  why  a  little  one  I  love 
both  lives  and  grows. 

(Ah  !  nearer  to  the  Infinite,  to  the  source 
divine,  is  the  soul  of  little  child.) 

You  have  touched  upon  a  marvel  never  to  be 
solved  by  mortal  mind  ;  but  of  this  my  Romola 
may  be  assured,  there  is  a  Power,  a  social  work- 
ing principle,  that  holds  the  starry  space  in  peace 
and  order.  Do  not  grow  impatient  ;  to  your 
question  I  am  coming. 

Now,  my  little  Miss,  see  here  ;  when  in  haste 
your  food  is  eaten,  does  not  your  stomach  aching 
protest  against  the  rude  intrusion  ?  To  be  sure 
it  does.  Equally  true  is  it  of  the  mind,  that 
there  is  need  of  proper  care  in  the  mode  of  its 
ingestion. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  57 

Have  you  forgotten  that  truce  of  ours  to  be 
constantly  on  the  lookout  for  lessons  to  be 
learned  from  relations  ?  Were  you  going  to 
Europe  would  it  be  enough  to  know  the  pier 
from  which  you'd  start,  enough  to  know  the 
direction  you  were  going  ?  I  think  not.  That 
your  voyage  might  be  comfortable  and  profitable, 
it  would  be  necessary  to  give  heed  to  your 
equipment.  Using  reason,  dear  child,  makes 
you  sensible  of  the  truth  I  would  convey  by 
means  of  simile.  By  the  senses  things  external 
are  perceived,  but  relations  are  discovered  by 
the  mind  through  the  operations  of  intuition 
and  of  reason.  Touch  this  book,  now  you  know 
of  something  near ;  sensational  disclosure,  you 
felt  it.  Look  upon  yon  mountain,  and  how 
know  you  it  is  there  ?  Seeing  is  sensation, 
feeling. 

In  this  search  for  knowledge  I  hope  you'll 
not  complain  if  asked  to  make  yourself  a  martyr 
to  the  scientific  method  of  its  gain.  Oh  !  with 
horror  would  your  soul  be  filled  did  you  know 
infinitely  less  than  quarter  of  the  fiendish  things 


58  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

done  to  the  victimized  by  those  whose  want  of 
knowledge  leads  to  the  use  of  criminal  means. 
It  is  sweetmeats  that  I  offer ;  later  on,  if  ill  I 
beg  you  not  to  murmur  ;  be  solaced  by  recol- 
lection of  the  present  agreeable  sensation  — 
feeling.  Listen  with  me  to  sweet  sounds  ;  the 
air  is  in  vibration,  in  harmonious  motion  ;  by 
pleasant  feelings  we  know  it. 

In  great -grandpa's  yard  stands  a  stately  tree, 
a  grand  old  oak  ;  around  it  we  have  frolicked. 
Its  parts,  you  know,  are  roots  and  trunk, 
branches  and  leaves  ;  now,  do  you  really  think 
that  the  substance  of  the  tree  is  different  in  the 
different  parts  ?  You  are  mistaken  ;  the  elements 
or  particles  of  matter  which,  entering  into,  make 
up  the  body  of  its  being,  are,  regardless  of 
position  for  the  several  parts,  identically  the 
same ;  the  difference  so  apparent  is  the  handi- 
work of  nature,  adept  in  the  art  of  moulding. 

In  like  manner  the  senses  are  connected  with 
each  other,  the  sense  of  touch  to  the  rest  play- 
ing the  part  of  trunk.  We  are  cabled  to  from 
the    outside.     The  difference    in    the   noise    of 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  59 

travel  is  due  to  difference  in  the  sense  port  from 
which  intelligence  starts.  Conjointly  arises  the 
distinctive  quality  of  port,  variation  in  the 
nervous  wires  and  unlikeness  in  the  character 
of  story  to  be  told,  unlikeness  of  substance  in 
the  code  transmitted,  size  and  shape,  or  form, 
the  beauty  of  diversified  color.  These  are  tales 
having  no  occasion  to  make  emotional  noise ; 
but  messages  which  tell  of  hardness  in  the 
nature  of  a  thing,  of  resistance,  reach  the  under- 
standing only  through  a  clamor.  All  dis- 
closures made  by  the  family  of  senses  are  sen- 
sational, the  difference  in  refinement  being 
caused  by  influence  of  external  environment. 
On  the  ocean  of  the  knowable,  in  our  equipment 
for  the  voyage,  enthroned  within  are  intuition 
and  its  lever,  reason  ;  they  are  the  intellectual 
senses,  telling  of  the  unseen. 

And  now  your  childish  face  lights  up,  and 
calling  for  the  "  previous  question  "  your  eyes 
brightly  beam.  Pitiful  the  thought,  instructors, 
stultified  by  memorizing,  for  ages  were  un- 
able   to    perceive  the   children's    mental   need, 


60  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

their  hunger  for  real  knowledge.  A  different 
system  now  prevails  ;  instruction  is  educational. 
The  gods  be  praised. 

Having  seen  the  function  of  the  senses,  we 
further  learn  of  their  reciprocal  use  as  efficient 
means  of  testing  doubtful  messages.  If  in  the 
judgments  of  the  mind  the  facts  that  they  por- 
tend were  admitted  as  relevant  witnesses,  then 
would  the  philosophic  nursery  be  cleared  of 
"  bugaboos  "  now  flourishing  in  it. 

Having  your  attention,  we  will  proceed  to 
talk  first  about  the  difference  between  intuition 
and  reason,  and  then  later  on  we  will  attempt 
to  explain  their  relation. 

In  this  room  hangs  the  picture  of  a  great 
philanthropist,  Elizabeth  Fry.  Raise  your  eyes, 
and  perception  of  it,  like  a  flash,  is  immediate. 
Now,  were  the  portrait  in  the  adjoining  room,  to 
perceive  it  movements  of  relationship  must  in- 
tervene. Intuition's  perceptive  work  is  as  the 
lightning  flash,  but  reason  is  a  cautious  mover. 
By  its  steady  light,  which  ne'er  goes  out,  but 
burns  with  brighter  flame,  it  socializes.     Reason 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  6 1 

discovers  truths  and  facts  by  means  of  classifi- 
cation, and  harmonizes  by  getting  into  line  those 
things  which  naturally  belong  together. 

Let  us  suppose,  as  through  the  wood  you 
stroll  upon  a  summer  morn,  from  the  ground 
you  take  a  plant,  you  pluck  a  flower.  The  little 
messenger  of  light  and  beauty  is,  we  will  think, 
to  you  quite  new  ;  but  if  on  knowledge  bent,  and 
no  wise  serpent  near,  pray  tell  me  what  would 
our  Romola  do  ?  That  is  quite  right  as  far  as 
it  goes.  By  examination  of  the  plant's  essen- 
tial organs,  by  the  facts  of  structure  and  of  form 
(truths  of  morphology),  you  would  learn  where 
the  plant  and  flower  belong,  would  come  to 
know  the  little  stranger. 

But  as  I  'm  in  want  of  a  verdict,  let  us  "  play  " 
that  you  are  a  juryman  ;  one  of  the  ideal  kind, 
I  mean.  Here,  Crier,  call  the  Court  to  order. 
Now,  Miss  Foreman,  do  you  twelve,  all  good  and 
true,  agree  that  the  scientific  labor  necessary  to 
find  out  a  truth  is  always  flashlike,  the  work  of 
a  moment  ? 

Upon  the  individual  person,  the  mortal  self, 


62  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

the  effect  of  the  work  of  intuition  and  of  reason 
is  to  build  up  emotion's  mountain,  the  spiritual 
self,  which  is  not  done  alone  by  a  perception  of 
the  relation  of  things  external  to  one's  self,  but 
also  by  thoughts  begotten  by  recognition  of 
substance,  that  in  itself  is  simply  a  relation,  and 
thus  to  the  individual  soul  is  added  a  finer 
matter,  mother-feeling. 

Women  have  emotions,  and  the  spirit  moveth 
me  to  say  that  they  display  the  mountain's  alpine 
peak.  Great  Jove  be  thanked !  Now  men's 
emotions,  sad  to  state,  are  panoramic  views 
mainly  of  the  mountain's  baser  portion,  its  grov- 
elling part. 

Romola,  I  beg  you'll  not  be  critical  with  my 
wanderings  in  talk  ;  I  am  stung  to  it  by  a  recol- 
lection of  words  from  stupid  tongues. 

But  now  let  us  seek  the  relationship  of  intu- 
ition and  reason.  When  upon  a  wintry  morn  to 
school  you  go,  little  tracks  in  the  soft  white 
snow  are  left  behind,  side  by  side,  two  and  two. 
Examined,  do  they  differ  ?  Not  a  bit.  Though 
found  in  different  positions,  yet  in  size  and  shape 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  63 

the  impressions,  in  their  form,  are  alike,  each 
pair  matching  all  its  mates.  Come,  tell  me  why 
this  is  so  ?  What,  you  hesitate  ?  But  now  re- 
flect, how  could  the  tracks  be  otherwise  than  ex- 
actly alike,  when  by  identically  the  same  two 
little  feet  all  were  made  ?  Thus  it  is  in  the 
process  we  call  reasoning  ;  every  step  in  it 
is  taken  by  the  understanding,  by  the  soul  of 
reason,  for  with  primal  intuition  (starting  point 
of  individual  soul)  are  impressions  taken  and 
disclosures  made. 

Now,  little  student,  shall  we  not  profit  by  in- 
dustrial example,  and  by  dividing  the  work  of 
teaching  have  co-operation  ?  I  offer  a  problem 
to  be  solved,  wondering  the  while  will  the  an- 
swer come  from  Romola's  intuition.  Here  are  a 
man  and  woman,  farmers  ;  forty  acres  of  land 
have  they  worked  ;  nature,  rewarding  their  toil, 
yielded  vegetables,  grain,  and  live-stock.  Now, 
child,  unto  whom  do  these  things  really  belong  ? 
Reader,  it  is  too  good  to  keep  ;  quick  as  a  flash 
her  answer  came  :  "  Why,  to  the  folks  who  did 
the  work."  Well  and  truly  spoken,  by  unerring 
intuition. 


64  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Romola  sensed  a  right  relation,  has  seen  a 
"Holy  Ghost,"  no  glimpse  of  which  was  ever 
caught  by  political  economists,  great  ones  of  our 
late  unsocial  past.  Very  nearly  did  our  Romola 
open  her  little  eyes  in  a  time  to  have  seen  the 
fiery  blood-red  sunrise  of  real  socialism.  Did 
we  but  seek  tuition  only  from  within,  from  the 
higher,  the  intellectual  self,  then  with  hope  of 
success  might  I  bespeak  for  my  grand-niece,  as 
from  sphere  to  sphere  on  the  voyage  of  life  she 
goes,  perpetual  harmony,  eternal  melody.  If  I 
bestrode  a  literary  steed,  a  real  Pegasus,  I  would 
not  seek  like  Bellerophon  to  mount  unto  the 
skies,  leaving  behind  the  work  I  had  but  just 
begun.  As  the  base  of  a  triangle  has  its  sides, 
and  a  point  from  which  these,  lines  are  drawn, 
so  likewise  an  effect  has  its  exposition  point, 
where  meet,  if  they  be  truly  taken,  the  two 
main  lines  of  an  explanation. 

To  show  connection  between  cause  and  its 
effect,  can  one  do  better  than  example  take  from 
mechanics'  royal  realm  ?  There  is  a  fact  in 
physics,  and  upon  it  is  based  weighty  matter, 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  65 

speculative  and  practical,  for  immersed  in  a  re- 
sisting medium,  matter,  if  set  in  motion,  tends, 
because  of  inertia,  to  revert  to  its  original  state. 
The  other  line  of  explanation  takes  its  illustration 
from  the  kingdom  of  dynamics,  where  the  vital 
forces  operate.  Yourselves  the  point  of  appli- 
cation may  make. 

In  zoologic  travel,  an  amphibian  gets  home- 
sick on  the  land,  objects  to  its  varied  wonders, 
blinking,  shuts  out  all  he  can  ;  but  to  build  up 
mind,  things  push  against  him.  He  longs  for 
repose,  for  the  sameness  of  the  water,  where  it 
was  easy  going  with  his  fins  and  fishy  tail. 
Nature  compromises  ;  while  he  is  a  baby,  the 
kind  mother  lets  him,  as  a  tadpole,  have  his 
"  precedent."  To  sever  arms  from  body  may 
be  an  act  that  is  good,  or  may  be  fiendish ; 
which,  depends  upon  the  working  cause  behind  it. 

To  kill,  has  for  its  inspiration  but  one  kind  of 
motive,  therefore,  if  it  be  admitted  that  an  act 
remains  the  same,  it  then  becomes  the  business 
of  accounting  to  explain  the  antipodal  character 
of  esteem  in  which  it  is  held.       Take  color  ;  red  (if 


66  SOCIO-ECONOMIC     MYTHES 

it  be  red)  must  red  continue,  however  much, 
through  cunning  art,  its  shade  be  changed. 
Hence,  to  murder  has,  in  moral  chemistry,  for  its 
initiative,  always  the  self-same  elemental  impulse 
— hatred,  revenge.  Yet  folks  have  thought 
that,  on  occasions,  the  act  of  murder  was  provi- 
dentially provided  with  a  purifying  purge — 
authority.  In  the  late  unsocial  past,  men  ex- 
ercised their  muscles,  trained  their  souls,  by  a 
wholesale  slaughter  of  each  other,  and  yet  in 
their  books  is  found  expressed  much  horror  of 
that  remoter  past  when  men  offered  up  each 
other  as  a  sacrifice  to  their  devilish  God.  To 
moral  myopics,  by  no  flight  of  fancy  can  con- 
sistency of  thought  be  charged.  Their  ghastly 
works  they  called  the  "  Art  of  War,"  and  vainly 
thought  by  that  their  bloody  deeds  were  en- 
dowed with  dignity.  Murder's  hideous  face  was 
veiled  by  forms  and  ceremonies,  social  sanction's 
finery,  through  a  belief  that  the  biggest  monster 
in  the  gory  struggle  was  rendered  a  hero,  a  social 
saint. 

The  cause  of  their  wars  I  illustrate  by  what, 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  6j 

according  to  sensation,  the  thermometer  would 
register — one  captain  of  the  social  cargo  burning 
up  with  fever,  his  rival  shaking  in  an  ague  chill. 
Such  differences  have  furnished  fuel  to  light 
the  fires  of  human  battle  when  nations,  Jonah- 
like, by  royal  sharks  were  swallowed  up.  May 
not  one  be  pardoned  for  a  sympathetic  thought 
with  any  kind  of  monster  whose  unnatural  state 
should  have  caused  writhings  with  at  least  the 

ache  ?     It  is  all  but  impossible  to  account 

for  their  un-Jonah-like  conduct,  huddled  in  the 
belly  of  a  shark,  and  yet  so  quiet. 

I  am  venturing  the  remark  that  it  is  not  sur- 
prising if  under  those  circumstances  the  pluto- 
crats found  themselves  redundant.  The  people, 
I  presume,  were  semi-paralyzed,  could  not  make 
out  how  it  came  about ;  and  no  doubt  trained 
scouts  were  sent  from  time  to  time  to  disclose 
the  mode  of  its  occurence,  and  by  declaring  the 
"  special-providence  "  act,  helped  the  dilemma 
out.  From  the  abdomen  to  the  head  is  a  tre- 
mendous long  journey,  means  a  tedious  and 
blood-stained  tramp.     This  it  is  which  keeps  the 


68  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

fearful  ones  back  from  rising  to  the  throat  of 
every  kind  of  shark.  The  citizens  of  those  rival 
sharks  were  filled  with  wild  imaginings,  wonder- 
ing if  quinia,  given  to  the  royal  invalids  alike, 
was  an  omnipotent  specific,  and  would  score  a 
double  restorative  effect. 

Nor  was  their  anxiety  unnatural,  since,  in  this 
illustrative  case,  death  to  one  meant  multiplicity 
of  expirations.  Grim  forebodings  moved  the 
cool-headed  and  reasonable  of  the  abdominal 
community  (the  men)  to  their  usual  mode  of  ar- 
bitration, and  they  fell  to  fighting.  Over  the 
predicament  those  M.  D.'s  were  in,  I'm  literally 
consumed  with  curiosity.  What  could  have  been 
their  management  of  doses  ?  But  for  this  in- 
teresting query  I  should  have  here  given  them 
the  "  dead  cut ;"  to  notice  quack  practitioners  is 
so  unseemly.  It  was  possible  by  Caesarian  sec- 
tion to  have  saved  a  host  of  lives  by  the  sacrifice 
of  one.  What  to  do  for  the  hemmed-in  creatures 
must  have  put  those  medical  professors  in  a 
hopeless  quandary.  Now,  wouldn't  I  like  to 
peer  into  their  mental   state.   .   .   .   Oh  !    I   have 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  69 

it :  thinking  those  poor  folks  housed  and  fed  by 
the  monstrous  good  will  of  their  patient  auto- 
crat, they  dubbed  them  paupers,  legitimate  "ma- 
terial "  for  inquisitorial  experiment  by  doctors. 
In  trade  rivalry  those  savages  found  frequent 
occasions  for  belligerency,  for  the  Promethean 
intellect,  being  bound,  was  scared- by  a  shadow 
— "balance  of  trade." 

Were  it  in  my  power,  had  I  a  camera,  some 
scenes  I  would  picture,  but  having  none,  descrip- 
tion must  continue  to  suffice.  One  big  country 
among  those  nations  was  politically  a  psuedo- 
republic  ;  its  inhabitants,  a  massive  conglomera- 
tion, styled  themselves  the  American  race  ;  and 
yet  not  with  blankets  or  with  tatooed  face  were 
they  figured  out.  It  is  really  true  that,  by  their 
dispossessors,  the  real  natives  were  left  in  sole 
possession  of  some  few  barbarities.  To  the  Dog- 
berry attitude  of  mind  the  citizens  of  that  coun- 
try were  in  no  wise  inclined  ;  to  write  themselves 
up  beautifully  was  the  custom,  leaving  the  sav- 
ing confessional  of  sins  to  deeds.  About  every 
atrocity  under  the  sun  was  in  that  great  country 


JO  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

perpetrated  by  individuals,  who  were,  if  backed 
by  money,  sometimes  sustained  by  a  "  tortion  " 
movement  of  their  laws.  Could  I  versify  reflec- 
tion, the  refrain  would  in  substance  be  :  had 
those  people  but  sensed  the  deep  purport  of  the 
flag,  of  the  "  totem  "  by  them  chosen,  listened  to 
their  silent  meanings  silently  outspoken,  then  in 
that  great  nation  each  person  with  eagle  vision 
had  seen  the  rights  of  every  other  being  to  be 
just  as  big  as  were  his  own  ;  then  from  the  point 
of  equal  doing  what  is  right,  that  nation's  motion 
as  a  social  star  had  been  true  and  straight. 
But,  alas  !  it  is  with  regret  I  state  that  the  ex- 
ample set  by  those  United  States  was  far  less 
glorious  than  was  needed.  Nevertheless,  this 
much  can  with  truth  be  said  :  in  the  treasures 
of  its  general  thought,  equal  rights  and  freedom, 
a  real  Pompeii  were  those  United  States  com- 
pared with  a  socio-political  atmosphere  laden 
with  the  bacteria  of  feudalism. 

Across  a  river,  famous  for  its  sovereign  tor- 
rent fall,  was  a  little  handful  of  big-feeling  folk. 
My  !  but  they  were  savage  quite.      From  blurred 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  7 1 

letters  I  barely  made  out  the  name  "  Canuck." 
Politically  it  was  no  pseudo-republic,  nor  yet  was 
it  true  monarchy ;  guess  it  might  with  truth  be 
called  a  hobbledehoy.  Now  those  poor  folks 
paid  large  sums  of  money  to  a  man  converted 
into  Governor-general  by  royal  pranks.  True, 
they  owed  him  much  for  arduous  and  useful  toil, 
his  destruction  of  their  pens  and  ink,  his  marking 
with  a  foreign  seal  their  unlaundried  political 
linen.  Situate  in  "Canuck"  was  Tarungto,  a 
beautiful  city,  but  wicked  and  unmoral.  One 
might  think  in  reading  of  its  doings  that,  mush- 
room-like, it  had  sprung  from  the  backwoods,  but 
such  surmise  is  a  mistake  ;  it  had  age,  for  abun- 
dant evidence  exists  of  progressive  women  living 
there.  If  I  wished  to  have  the  nightmare  I 
would  give  loose  rein  to  fancy,  thinking  what 
must  by  those  liberal  women  have  been  endured ; 
quite  awful,  I  am  sure,  and  so  I  don't  care  by 
experience  to  go  further  into  the  matter.  The 
plain  truth  is,  that  city  was  scourged  by  a  plague 
worse  than  Job's  boils — pious  consistency. 
'Twas   no  harm,  they  argued,  to  take    on   the 


72  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

sacred  morn  milk  and  cream,  provided  that  at 
back  doors  the  thing  be  done  ;  but  to  have  Sun- 
day street-cars  was,  to  the  morally  feeble,  the 
piously  strong,  an  offence,  a  heinous  crime.  On 
the  road  of  intelligence  belated  were  those  folk, 
which  accounts  for  weakness  of  moral  vision,  ob- 
scuring what  to  the  clear-sighted  is  so  plain,  that 
the  poor  have  the  right  to  an  opportunity  to  use 
Sunday,  their  only  day  for  an  outing,  as  each 
chooses,  as  conscience  dictates,  and  as  health 
requires.  With  customary  regard  for  accuracy 
those  "remonstrants  "  to  what  is  right  styled 
themselves  Protestants.  In  solemn  conclave 
met  that  city's  worldly  fortunate,  and  after 
prayer  unanimously  agreed  that  in  one's  own 
carriage  to  ride  on  the  Sabbath  was  quite  the 
thing,  for  such  an  outing  smelled  not  of  vulgar 
sin.  But  as  the  sapling  conscience  demands 
that  something  real  be  done,  though  just  a  little 
will  suffice,  this  is  why,  to  restrain  their  beasts 
to  a  solemn  walk  or  at  most  a  guarded  trot  was 
by  amendment  provided  ;  and  that  coachman 
failing  to  put  on  a  mask,  serious  expression,  was 
to  be  fined. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  73 

Of  one  progressive  woman's  energetic  ef- 
forts the  records  of  Tarungto  bear  trace. 
Though  mammoth  the  footprints  of  her  social 
work,  yet  unlike  those  of  the  Eozoon  Canadense, 
they  are  certain,  and  of  the  real  human  are  leg- 
ible marks.  Her  sex's  pioneer  in  the  medical 
profession  of  Canuck,  Dr.  Emily  H.  Stowe 
sought  along  more  lines  than  one  to  direct  the 
moral  sense,  but  prejudice  and  bigotry  pre- 
vent the  wholesome  expansion  of  ideas  and  of 
deeds,  so  about  equal  rights  the  well-to-do 
persisted  in  caring  not  a  "continental,"  persist- 
ed in  flaunting  the  righteous  rag. 

Stupid  things  sometimes  show  up  funny ; 
gossips  were  those  pictures.  In  a  conversation 
between  a  gentleman  and  a  lady  this  amusing 
incident  occurred  :  An  earnest  look  upon  the 
pictured  face  and  yet  he  said  :  "Is  it  possible, 
Mrs.  Barbalow,  you  are  not  aware  that  in  Can- 
uck the  people  are  far  more  moral  than  yours  ?" 
Her's  was  a  smiling  face.  I  quote  verbatim  the 
reply  she  made,  deeming  it  a  "stunner,"  for  it 
shows   how  a  man's  words   and  acts  belie  each 


74  SOCIO-FXONOMIC    MYTHES 

other  :  "Do  I  mistake,  or  have  you  not  said  that 
having  left  Canuck  for  good  you  have  come  to 
the  States  with  us  to  reside  ?." 

Monsieur,  were  you  asked  to  name  the  points 
of  difference  between  tweedledum  and  tweedlc- 
dee,  what  answer  would  you  make  ?  As  I 
expected,  you  say  that  the  distinction  lies  in 
their  orthography.  "You  lie,"  vociferates  so- 
ciety ;  "between  the  tweedle  of  the  dum  and 
the  tweedle  of  the  dee  behold  a  chasm  deep 
and  wide,  dug  by  us  in  our  high-priest  capa- 
city." Indeed,  monsieur,  it  is  your  turn  a 
question  to  propose.  What's  that  ?  Can  a 
leopard  change  his  spots  ?  Yea,  verily,  I  an- 
swer. Is  the  thing  not  done  by  Mr.  Leop- 
ard as  in  time  he  learns  to  shoulder  a  gun  ? 
Humans,  having  knowledge  of  constructive  art, 
have  repaired  a  damage  that  in  zoologic  travel 
they  en  route  sustained,  but  upon  that  piece  of 
soil,  the  soul,  the  tax  has  been,  I  own,  so  heavy 
as  to  nearly  bring  about  its  reversion  to  a 
primal  state. 

Now,    I    for    one    desire    to   get  conclusions 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  75 

straight,  and  so  in  all  sincerity  this  question 
put  :  What  is  "male  intellect  "  for  anyway,  if  it 
be  not  to  make  good  man's  loss  of  wild-boar  tusks 
and  tiger  claws  ?  Woman's  part  in  the  concern 
of  war  is  so  involved  in  horror,  that  I  feel  to 
speak  of  it  with  bated  breath  ;  kindly  draw  your 
chair  nearer.  Taught  by  men  that  to  breed  sons 
for  battle  was  an  heroic  service,  nay,  their  pious 
duty,  whose  fulfilment  was  sure  by  divinity  to 
be  rewarded  sometime,  somewhere,  "  out  of 
sight,"  when  from  battle  no  portion  of  the  dar- 
ling boy  came  home,  then  to  solace  the  an- 
guished mother  was  prepared  this  sweet  mor- 
sel :  to  give  a  bitter  lesson  the  auspicious 
occasion  had  by  a  "  Heavenly  Father "  been 
improved  ;  her  heart's  love  must  from  her  son 
be  brought  home  to  her  God.  "  For  I,  the  Lord 
thy  God,  am  a  jealous  God,"  men  said. 

Of  woman's  relation  to  divinity  I  have  certi- 
tude, I  feel  that  it  is  proved.  Men  have 
"brought  her  up  by  hand,"  have  tried,  disre- 
garding "the  signs,"  to  wean  her  from  the 
good,  but  to  the  mother-thought  in  God  she  is 


j6  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

moored.  An  eastern  star  has  risen.  In  medi- 
cine, we  descendants  of  an  ancient  wizard  line, 
"regulars"  in  the  art  of  curing  patients,  shake 
no  sacred  rattle  ;  therefore  is  there  hope  in  all 
directions  for  completion  of  the  unfinished  busi- 
ness of  our  prehistoric  past.  War  and  murder, 
individual  and  social  crimes,  are  estranged,  widely 
different ;  plain  is  this  to  men. 

And  yet  this  little  girl,  Romola,  persists  in 
saying  that  she  "don't  see  it."  Over  some- 
thing have  I  pondered  long.  Hither  come, 
grandniece,  and  learn  the  results  of  my  much 
cogitation ;  hear  the  judgment  of  my  mind. 
In  the  mystery  of  being,  individualization  has 
its  ultimate  objective  aim,  which  to  me,  no 
longer  occult,  seems  quite  plain.  From 
relevant,  from  weighty  evidence,  I  conclude  that 
the  purpose  of  earth  life,  with  its  bother,  is  to 
make  a  "grant  "  unto  a  needy  class,  is  to  relieve 
a  poverty.  With  human  intellect  our  men  imist 
be  endowed. 


AND     MYTHE-MAKERS.  77 


CHAPTER  III. 

society's   movements    outlined. 

FRATERNAL  socialism  is  the  destiny  of 
society.  This  conclusion  verified  by  in- 
terpretation of  its  progress,  by  the  light  of  the 
facts  of  motion. 

Voyaging  through  space  is  our  solar  system, 
the  sun,  planets,  and  their  boon  companions  ; 
naught  interferes  with  the  majesty  of  their 
movements,  and  naught  interrupts  their  onward 
equal  motion. 

Society,  when  its  beginning  ?  Where  its 
early  morning  ?  We  have  an  exhibition  of  co- 
operation among  the  ants  and  bees,  little  folks, 
beings  in  the  kingdom  of  invertebrata.  A  sort 
of  instinctive  freak,  I  do  suppose,  but  yet  it 
shows  us,  who  are  evolution's  fine  productive  work, 
what  are  our  social  possibilites  did  we  but  use 
our  intellects.     As  species  multiplied,  and  diver- 


78  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

sified  forms  came  on  with  rapid  stride,  there 
was  interruption  of  this  co-operation's  line  of 
march,  consciousness  of  self  becoming  the  om- 
nipresent, all-powerful  feeling  ;  and  so  associa- 
tion, blest  work  of  power  co-operative,  of  princi- 
ple social,  though  not  wholly  discarded,  at  least 
met  with  the  cold  shoulder,  socialism  being 
"quite  too  sentimental  "  for  denizens  of  bigger 
fleshly  homes.  Although  the  pasture  is  poor, 
association  browses  on,  ne'er  quits  the  living 
field ;  conscious  of  her  guiding  spirit,  eternal 
principle,  she  is  scientific,  and  knows  with  keen 
prevision  that  some  day  her  soul  shall  have  a 
beautiful  complete  expression,  albeit  the  process 
is  piecemeal. 

In  the  mammalia  her  debut  was  attended 
with  supernal  glory,  for  against  the  possibility 
of  calamitous  mishap  the  social  principle  came 
guarded,  protected  by  maternal  emotions,  came 
fixed  in  mother  love.  Oh  !  wise  provision. 
The  zoological  argument  prevents  the  assump- 
tion of  a  completely  individualistic  period  for 
man,  at  the  same  time  logical  thought  bars  the 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  79 

supposition  that  social  progress,  shown  to  be 
evolving,  could  have  been  severed  in  its  evo- 
lution course  by  man,  the  superior  animal. 
Why,  the  thing  is  unthinkable,  the  humanizing 
principle  put  out  of  humans'  great  primary. 
Why,  those  men  were  not  afraid  of  being  "senti- 
mental," therefore  for  the  human  species,  from 
their  very  first,  we  must  postulate  the  social 
state,  not  indeed  fraternal,  but  one  disjointed, 
mangled  in  its  form,  filial  love  for  which  keeps 
male  intellects  upon  the  rack,  busy  devising 
ways  and  means  to  retain  a  burden,  a  prehis- 
toric mummy.  There  is  comfort.  Final  disap- 
pointment awaits  all  efforts  out  of  time,  out  of 
tune;  and  paternal  socialism,  dear  fetich,  is  al- 
ready doomed,  soon  will  find  its  true  abiding 
place  in  musty  annals  of  the  social  past.  Fra- 
ternal socialism,  long  overdue  (ways  most  sinis- 
ter delay  the  birth),  must  wait  till  a  social 
whirlwind,  sweeping,  rends  asunder  the  barri- 
ers. Among  the  truths  demonstrated  by 
philosophical  science  is  the  fact  of  universal 
motion.      Substance,    ever    changing    its    posi- 


80  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

tion,  obeys  the  continuous  call  of  a  tireless 
taskmaster — "principle  of  activity."  There- 
fore may  we  not  conclude  that  as  soul  and 
matter  are  tied  up  in  one,  they  together  cease- 
lessly are  on  the  equal  move  ? 

What  is  the  meaning  in  the  cosmic  drama  of 
the  part  played  by  direction,  meaning  of  the 
power  to  become  ?  On  this  particular  head  not 
much  is  often  or  intelligently  said,  except  in 
scientific  art  where  the  importance  of  direction 
is  made  plain  ;  for  in  the  mechanical  realm  men 
recognize  that  a  chance  for  error  breeds  disas- 
trous results,  so  there  is  patient,  careful  obser- 
vation and  no  trifling  with  its  "  how  ;"  and  of 
course  ways  and  means  result  from  honest  an- 
alytical work.  Therefore  it  is  proven  beyond 
doubt,  that,  impulsion  granted,  the  direction  of 
a  moving  body  is  the  resultant  of  the  forces 
acting  on  it  from  without.  Furthermore  it  is 
shown  that  cessation  of  all  motion  is  an  affair  of 
appearance  only,  and  that  when  arrested  in  its 
progress  a  body  transfers  mass  motion  to  its 
molecular  or  individual  parts.     A  weighty  body, 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  8  I 

great  momentum,  obstructed  in  its  course,  fric- 
tion of  the  individual  particles,  ignition,  flame, 
destruction  of  the  mass. 

Yourself  may  make  the  social  application. 
Journeying  upon  life's  highway  are  beings,  ex- 
hibitions of  its  wonders,  and  when,  to  powers 
attained,  new  energies  are  called  out  from  life- 
power's  mystic  space,  such  display  is  stars 
plucked  from  skies  and  made  one's  own. 
Whence  comes  it,  and  what  is  it  that  interferes 
with  the  race's  majesty  of  movement  ?  What 
interrupts  the  equal  onward  motion  of  its  indi- 
vidual parts  ?  A  mass  of  molecules  is  society ; 
their  movements  summarized  are  motions  from 
point  to  point  in  the  state  of  association,  parti- 
cles, combination,  masses.  To  stop  here  one 
might  truly  say  that  the  process  on  its  surface 
differs  not  from  the  formation  of  a  stone. 

But  while  recognizing  points  of  contact 
through  the  facts  of  motion,  let  us  not  be  hasty 
in  conclusions.  There  are  differences  to  note. 
Like  and  unlike  is  an  omnipresent  fact.  Were 
it  otherwise,  where  would  be  the  work  for  Rea- 
son ?     She  would  be  idle  ;  a  heinous  thing. 


82  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Prior  to  intelligent  discussion  this  must  be 
recognized  :  in  the  depths  of  the  sea  of  know- 
ledge are  certain  bottom  facts,  and  worthless  is 
that  literary  image  that  pictures  them  afloat. 
According  to  position,  and  order  in  time,  causes 
must  be  grouped,  classified,  otherwise  the  no- 
tice received  is  not  comformable  to  the  force  of 
their  active  work,  and  by  that  kind  of  literary 
effort  just  nothing  is  bespoke.  Fruitless  is  the 
reasoning  when  an  essential  fact,  like  the  prin. 
ciple  of  true  division,  is  maltreated,  cast  upon 
its  back.  Which  of  us  cannot  recall  instances 
of  dire  confusion  when  primary  causes,  those 
first  in  time,  soonest  at  the  work,  met  with 
scant  polite  attention.  It  is  gleeful,  while 
the  learned  "  are  giving  higher  utility  to  ink," 
to  watch  the  vulgar  scramble  into  which  first 
causes  are  forced  with  their  secondaries,  those 
which  are  born  effects,  but,  by  reason  of  rela- 
tion, don  the  kingly  purple  and  exercise  control. 

I  own  it  is  painful  to  find  internal  and  exter- 
nal causes,  a  staid  worthy  couple,  maintaining 
throughout  their  sober  walk  down  time  the  cir- 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  83 

cumspect  position,  each  keeping  from  the  other 
a  respectful  distance ;  painful  to  find  them 
through  queer  reasoning's  whirl  joined  in  a 
merry  frolic,  which,  to  say  the  least,  is  incon- 
sistent with  the  stately  measure  of  their  natural 
tread.  Internal  and  External  Cause,  estim- 
able pair,  have  you  a  grievance  ?  Are  you  mis- 
mated  ?  True,  I  do  perceive  a  difference,  but  is 
it  matter  for  despair  if,  within  her  bosom,  Inter- 
nal bears  the  vital  spark  ?  Contented  be, 
External ;  thine  the  art  to  call  it  forth,  a  heav- 
enly flame. 

The  motion  that  we  predicate  of  stick  or 
stone  has  its  initiative  in  the  mortal  will,  takes 
its  first  leap  from  mortal  throw  ;  but  this  as- 
sumption for  the  primal  internal  cause  of  social 
impulse  would  indeed  be  vain.  Principle  of 
self,  smooth  down  that  ruffled  plumage ;  with 
you  I  have  no  quarrel ;  do  I  not  know  that  your 
birth  was  in  immortal  will,  your  leap  was  by 
divine  throe  ?  Yet,  sir,  I  have  a  quarrel  with 
the  persistent  stupidity  of  your  ways  of  doing 
social    things.      Sweet   principle  of    sympathy, 


84  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

latest  come  to  earth  from  heaven,  not  yet  thy 
golden  head  canst  rear  aloft,  not  yet  in  thine 
own  true  sphere  canst  walk  erect ;  there  is  an 
enemy  in  ambuscade  —  stupidity. 

Science  declares  that  were  it  possible  to  elim- 
inate all  external  resistance  to  onward  motion, 
then  a  body  would  continue  forever  in  a 
straight  line  moving  in  the  direction  given  it  by 
original  impulse.  Now,  if  this  assumption  be 
logical  of  motions,  mortal  in  their  origin,  is  its 
application,  I  ask,  less  logical,  certain,  or  less 
true,  to  motions  (beings)  having  for  their  initia- 
tive the  divine,  the  God  impact  ?  Wherefore, 
then,  within  a  race  ( the  great  social  body  )  is 
there  such  halting,  limping,  bobbing  up  and 
down,  in  short,  the  sin  of  uselesss,  unnatural  com- 
motion. In  the  beginning  all  were  uncivilized  ; 
now,  explain  why  our  social  body,  an  intellec- 
tual mosaic,  is  not  also  a  social  plane  ;  such  is 
the  domestic  family. 

The  reason  I  will  try  to  make  plain,  for 
everything  has  its  "why."  Causes  are  within, 
say  you  ?     Agreed,   within   the  individual  and 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  85 

zvitJiin  society.  We  both  are  satisfied  as  to  the 
"where"  to  look  for  causes  and  occasions,  pri- 
mary and  secondary  ;  yet  I  would  not  have  you 
think  me  one  of  those  of  conditions  so 
peculiar  that  I  hesitate  to  call  them  folks 
(lest  it  be  a  misnomer),  who,  by  a  process 
of  invagination,  have  parted  company  with 
senses  for  the  external,  have  become  all  iti- 
side,  which  accounts  for  irrational  idealists 
denying  the  working  mode  of  God,  subject  and 
object  in  relation. 

And  now,  before  we  further  talk,  grant  me  this 
favor  :  load  me  not  with  literary  gewgaws,  ex- 
planations, tinselled  jewelry,  "  glittering  gener- 
alities ;"  deal  with  facts,  be  explicit,  and,  in  short, 
"  come  down  to  dots  ;"  tell  us  the  whole  "  why  " 
of  society's  dark  sun  spots.  We  must  bear  in 
mind  that  the  Powers  are  in  themselves  equally 
and  at  all  times  good,  regardless  of  the  uses  to 
which  by  man  they  are  too  often  put.  To  make 
matters  plain,  I  am  compelled  to  add  something 
in  the  nature  of  a  revelation.  Not  in  the  Powers 
themselves,  but    in  the  DIRECTION,  in  the 


86  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MVTHES 

harmful  using,  is  it  that  the  mortal  has  a  creation 
made,  has  a  something  into  "good  for  nothing  " 
wrought,  made  the  Devil. 

Causes  are  within,  I  think  you  said,  and  I 
grant  it.  Who  is  so  silly  as  to  say  there  is  no 
mind,  that  all  is  matter  ?  Who  is  so  wise  as  to 
deny  that  mind  a  silent  partner  is,  and  being 
spiritual,  works  in  secret,  in  the  dark,  visible 
only  in  its  objective  double  ? 

In  social  matters  all  must  own  the  mind's 
embodiment  is  a  dense  materialization.  Speed- 
ing on  its  linear  way,  improvement  in  productive 
methods  fixes  social  points.  Socio-economic 
association,  the  "  come  by  chance  "  child  of  in- 
dustrial planning,  has  a  course  of  constant  tack- 
ing, constant  tramping.  Still,  we  may  reckon 
on  the  day  of  its  willingly  sought  recognition, 
reaction's  blessed  work ;  and  then,  O  heaven- 
kissed  earth,  enlightened  self-interest  coincides 
with  other  self  in  the  economic  point.  Resist- 
ance removed,  bodies  projected  by  the  mortal 
will  continue  onward  moving  in  the  line  of  their 
direction  forever.     Bodies  projected  by  the  Im- 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  87 

mortal  Will  overcome  resistance  of  the  mortal, 
will  continue  onward,  moving  in  the  direction  of 
unfoldment,  forever  and  forever. 

In  this  attempt  at  social  outlining,  I  must  of 
course  start  from  the  point  named  human,  from 
which  motions  may  be  generalized  as  progres- 
sion along  two  great  lines.  As  object-lessons 
help  to  show  a  meaning,  let  us  avail  ourselves  of 
an  instructive  recreation.  I  make  a  point,  and 
pardon,  friend,  if  I  call  it  human ;  out  from  this 
point  I  draw  a  line,  not  crooked,  as  you  see,  but 
straight ;  and,  as  one  fiction  does  beget  another 
(the  lesson  that  we  daily  learn),  so  I,  bowing  to 
the  inevitable,  call  this  straight  line  the  path  of 
the  human's  intellect.  But  now  I  am  struck 
with  fear  lest  you  charge  me  with  attempt  to 
perform  a  Jesuitical  manoeuvre.  Not  so ;  at 
present  I'm  the  sincere  follower  of  majestic, 
awful  example  ;  for  are  not  crooked  things  made 
to  look  straight,  and  straight  things  to  look 
crooked,  by  legislative  expediency  ? 

Aside  from  pleasantry,  reasoning,  as  we  are 
aware,  permits  latitude,  sometimes  misleading ; 


88  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

yet  vvc  concede  that  the  general  notion  of  society 
admits  of  precise  geometric  expression.  I  am 
not  seeking  to  deceive  ;  such  a  picture  does  not 
represent  the  actual  social  fact.  Human  dots 
are  in  an  awful  tangle,  at  unnatural  points  are 
pressed  too  close,  at  natural  points  of  contact 
do  not  closely  adhere,  and  until  there  is  a 
straightening  out  it  is  impossible  of  them  to 
make  a  circle,  of  their  doings,  impossible  to 
make  a  square.  All  things  in  space  by  scientific 
philosophy  are  reduced  to  motions.  What,  you 
demur  ?  My  advice  is  read  Spencer's  "  First 
Principles,"  "  go  into  the  silence,"  on  its  meaning 
think  and  apply.  Time  and  Space,  what  are 
they?  On  this  subject  the  most  that  can  be 
has  been  said  :  "  two  modes  of  the  unknowable." 
Without  doubt  it  has  been  proven  that  things, 
be  they  seen  or  not,  are  susceptible  of  mechan- 
ical interpretation  and  of  mathematical  relation- 
ing  to  the  sublime  fact,  motion. 

Time  bends  to  neither  side,  moves  in  a 
straight  line,  is  before  us,  is  behind,  for  appear- 
ance gives  no  band. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  89 

Space  in  all  directions  is,  neither  comes  nor 
goes,  wholly  steady,  omnipresent,  always  ready. 

To  get  the  ear  of  Time  one  lies  within  its 
arms  ;  but  Space,  majestic  stoic,  is  unmoved, 
cannot  be  decreased,  cannot  be  enlarged  ;  'tis 
the  circle  divine,  the  fold  of  Deity.  Time  is  the 
line  divine  ;  on  it  we  mortals  climb  to  higher 
views.  Point  in  front  of  point,  spiritual  is  the 
motion  of  the  intellect,  taking  place  in  time, 
and  yet  unseen  except  by  her  who  reads  between 
the  lines. 

Returning  to  our  object-lesson,  our  human 
dots,  patient  forbearing  things,  their  rights  have 
been  neglected.  Well,  there  were  obstacles  to 
be  surmounted,  but  now  with  willing  minds  we 
will  bend  ourselves  unto  the  work  of  right 
positioning.  You  perceive  that,  disturbing  ele- 
ments admitted,  it  is,  as  I  have  said,  impossible 
to  make  of  human  dots  lines  straight,  lines 
parallel  (geometries  of  melody  and  harmony)  ; 
impossible,  at  least,  until  we've  done  with  social 
"gerrymandering."  By  our  object-lesson  we 
have  learned  of  two  great  lines  of  motion  :  the 


90  SOCIO-ECONOMIC     MYTHES 

mental,  and  the  line  of  social  march.  Divine 
intent  would  have  them  straight,  and  at  right 
angles  to  each  other,  but  such  is  not  the  mortal 
thought.  Still,  through  an  overruling  Provi- 
dence, upon  the  tramp  of  intellect  socialism  has 
at  all  times  its  little,  its  sure  corner.  What's 
the  business  of  the  intellect  ?  Well,  she's  an 
"agitator,"  a  regular  "walking  delegate;"  into 
the  organism  gathers  images  of  things,  moulds 
them  into  shape  to  fit  the  body's  needs,  and  so 
helps  on  the  spiritual.  The  method  of  arriving 
at  conclusions  true,  after  the  historic  ship  has 
disappeared  from  view,  is  spiritual  ;  and  if  the 
logic  proves  not  a  cystic  tumor,  but  tissue  firm 
and  true,  with  pedigree  unassailable,  based  on 
general  experiences,  such  conclusions  should 
occupy  in  literary  space,  if  not  a  corner  lot,  at 
least  a  favored  spot  with  actual  knowledge. 

In  the  earliest,  or  hunting,  stage  of  society, 
people  roamed  in  herds,  and  by  preying  on  their 
fello\v  animals  clothed  themselves  and  found 
their  food.  To  this  general  statement  I  should 
perhaps     exception    make    :  the  gentle,    those 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  9 1 

springing  from  herbivora,  must  have  been  in- 
clined to  seek  subsistence  from  the  bark  and 
fruit  of  trees. 

In  the  chain  of  social  progress,  could  we  count 
the  links  forged  on  the  line  of  travel  from  the 
hunting  to  the  pastoral  state,  truthful  witnesses 
would  they  be  found  of  man's  evolution  out  of  a 
brutal  condition.  Peaceful  dwelling  with  God's 
other  creatures,  thought  for  them,  and  kind 
caretaking  must  have  taught  man  much,  and 
in  fancy  I  can  see  him  listen  to  their  silent 
voices,  hearken  with  his  soul.  Still  those  pas- 
tors preyed  upon  the  bodies  of  their  flocks. 

Blest  with  powers  of  observation,  blest  with 
powers  of  divination,  early  folk  noted  nature, 
from  her  took  their  lesson,  for,  at  divers  times 
and  places,  from  mere  scattered  seeds  they  be- 
held the  magic  birth  of  forests — plants  and 
trees.  Uncivilized,  without  legally  established 
authority,  the  voice  of  nature  was  to  them  both 
priest  and  oracle.  Prehistoric  man,  blest  folk, 
free  to  act,  free  to  think,  your  mental  ear  was 
not  clogged  with   intellectual   rust  nor  parasitic 


92  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

smut ;  in  your  social  drama  there  was  no  Henry 
Wood  to  bear  the  burden  of  an  important  part, 
to  hinder  progress  by  his  unmitigated  "fool 
talk."* 

And  so  the  gentle  of  those  early  human  kind 
followed  the  God  lead,  broke  the  solid  ranks  of 
ultra-savagery,  crossed  the  Rubicon,  and  without 
pomp  and  ceremony  (vain  externals,  hiding 
tyranny)  took  possession  of  the  agricultural  es- 
tate. Oh  !  the  grandeur  of  that  occasion  who 
can  paint  ?  Evolution  into  humans  then  and 
there  made  possible  ;  people  have  no  need  for 
preying ;  up  and  harmless  doing  is  the  human 
note.  Why  so  lowly  centered,  mortal  self  ? 
Must  each  step  of  thy  eastward  tramp  be 
through  hard  external  knocks  ? 

Become  introspective,  hearken  to  the 
"still  small  voice."  Reason  leads  to  social 
ways    of    doing,  leads    unto    a    social    haven. 

*In  "The  Political  Economy  of  Natural  Law,"  Henry  Wood  says  it  is  a 
question  of  Realisam  versus  Idealism,  shall  the  worst  or  the  best  be  made  of 
existing  conditions  ?  Ideal  political  economy  consists  in  holding  up  the  true 
potentiality  or  fullness  of  what  already  is.  Socialism  would  smother  arbi- 
tration, liberty,  and  discourage  progress;  consumption  would  overtake  and 
soon  pass  production  as  its  practical  result. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  93 

Dimmed  the  thoughtful  vision  which,  for  ex- 
isting socio-economic  classes,  finds  by  reason- 
ing from  the  acts  of  men  now  living  no 
causative  explanation.  The  earliest  conserva- 
tives, those  loyal  to  the  carnivorous  instinct, 
seeing  the  peace  and  happiness  of  farming  folk, 
seeing  their  apparent  plenty,  felt  the  greed  of 
avarice  and  envy,  and  being  illumined  deemed 
their  "  poverty  a  mere  belief,"  "  an  error  of  the 
mind;"  unsentimental,  enlightened,  "the  at- 
tractive force  of  fear"  was  by  them  quickly  put 
behind.  The  sequel,  need  I  it  relate  ?  The 
peaceful  farming  folk,  they  who  had  chosen 
God,  became  goods  and  chattels,  and  to  the  un- 
employed have  ever  since  paid  tent.  Thus  was 
brought  about  an  interruption  big  with  social 
havoc. 

The  natural  spread  of  private  property  was 
hindered,  hindered  was  its  humanizing  work ; 
and  unnatural  accumulations,  unnatural  control 
by  the  few,  have  since  grown  and  thriven. 
Among  the  many  changes  that  party  revulsion 
brought  about  was  the  overthrow  of  the  gen- 


94  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

eral  family  plan,  the  mother's  kindly  rule,  that 
social  habit  of  the  gens,  and,  in  its  stead,  politi- 
cally was  instituted  the  paternal  regime  and 
social  havoc.  Within  the  organism,  plant  and 
animal  as  well  as  social,  "  relics  "  are  found 
which  should  have  gone  with  their  companions, 
but  they  remain  to  do  a  freakish,  a  fatal  work. 

Everything  —  thought,  event,  and  state  — 
has  its  internal  and  external  causes,  has  its 
genealogy.  There  exists  in  the  polite,  high- 
bred society  what,  from  preference,  you  may 
call  an  aberrant  variety ;  but  myself,  after  care- 
ful consideration,  after  profitable  reading  of 
learned  essays  on  heredity*  by  him  so  fond  of 
the  antique,  am  'bound  in  conscience  to  declare 
the  anomaly  to  be  a  spontaneous  overflow  of 
"  germ  plasm,"  descending  from  the  hunting 
state  with  continuity  as  yet  unbroken  by  the 
civilizer,  honest  human  work.  And  so  it  hap- 
pens that,  booted,  spurred,  armored,  these 
children  of  wild  blood,  male  and  female  Don 
Quixotes,  gallop   after  tiny  fox,  which   from  its 

*  "  Theory  of  Heredity,"  by  Dr.  August  Weissmami. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  95 

box,  by  loosening,  they  have  awfully  scared. 
Beautiful  their  filial  piety ;  picturesque  too. 
Forests  and  monsters  gone  and  yet  equipped 
and  out  on  view,  this  atavic  variety  presents 
the  semblance  of  dreadful  dangers  by  them  to 
be  incurred  in  a  rendezvous  with  Sir  Reynard, 
or,  in  lieu  of  him,  an  encounter  with  one  bellig- 
erent sand  bag. 


g6  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTI1ES 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SOCIO-ECONOMIC    FACTS. 

THE  bond  which  cannot  be  broken,  try  how 
we  may,  by  means  obscure  and  sinister  ; 
the  knot  which  none  can  sever  ;  the  one  in- 
vulnerable spot,  is  parentage,  relation  of  effect 
to  cause.  To  God,  the  centre  of  all  beings' 
circle,  by  whose  activities  produced,  offspring- 
ing  we  stand  in  close  relation  ;  yet,  from  our  es- 
tate evicted,  from  natural  relation  distrained, 
and  by  adoption  become  children  of  the  devil- 
"La  Couvade."     Great  method  ! 

A  fact  is  that  which  is.  The  supreme 
fact,  including  every  other  fact,  is  that  we  indi- 
viduals are  here  upon  earth  in  the  equal  posses- 
sion of  powers  peculiar  to  our  species,  and  by 
wants  resulting  from  racial  unfoldment  we  are 
stirred  ;  therefore  we  are  equally  the  possessors 
of  the  natural  right  to  satisfy  our  wants,  to  ex- 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  97 

ercise  our  human  powers ;  and  anon,  when  soci- 
ety shall  have  become  human,  will  come  the 
equal  opportunity. 

Between  equal  possession  of  powers  and  de- 
sires, and  possession  of  equal  powers  and  desires, 
be  pleased  to  note  distinctions. 

The  "whence"  of  our  primal  powers  is 
"  the  Unknowable,"  but  to  the  domain  of  the 
knowable  belongs  their  "  whither."  That 
you  and  I  are  on  a  part  of  the  earth,  are  in  a 
given  social  circle,  is  evidence  de  facto  that  we 
belong  to  the  geographical  and  social  portion 
where  we  find  ourselves  to  be. 

This  proposition  admitted,  then,  by  a  parity 
of  reasoning  the  geographical  and  social  portion 
is  theirs  equally  who  at  a  given  time  are  on  it 
and  are  in  it.  Accordingly,  when  in  individual 
instances  the  socio-economic  conditions  are 
less  than  the  broadest  possibilities  by  race 
progress  warranted,  then  is  the  inequality 
due,  not  to  the  working  of  eternal  principles 
which  bring  us  hither,  but  to  social  sins  that 
arise  from   our  want  of  civilization   (individual- 


98  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

ism  overcome).  Wealth  is  external  nature's 
gifts  moulded  to  fit  human  wants  by  human  la- 
bor motions.  For  descriptions  of  its  infancy  to 
the  pages  of  orthodox  political  economy  you  are 
referred,  little  narratives  which  take  high  rank  as 
occasions  when  moved  were  those  authors  by  a 
spirit  philosophic.  Not  suited  with  its  quarters, 
the  spirit  fled,  leaving  their  great  science  unin- 
telligible. 

From  the  individualistic  to  the  social  method 
of  production  there  has  been  an  interesting, 
one  might  say  an  episodal,  journey.  The  fam- 
ily at  first  was  the  producing  unit,  and 
consumed  what  itself  supplied.  The  excep- 
tions to  be  noted  are  those  cases  of  descent 
with  brutal  force  applied,  evictions  and  dis- 
traint. Simply  put,  my  meaning  is,  that  of 
wealth-objects  there  was  no  exchange.  But 
with  stately  measure  "division  of  labor " 
strode  on  and  in  time  was  mated  with  ex- 
change. The  homely  mode  was  barter. 
Early  men  discovered  that  they  could  trust 
each    other ;    friendly  intercourse    was    opened 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  99 

up  by  the  act  of  exchange,  and,  things  being 
natural,  to  the  exchanging  parties  there  ac- 
crued an  equal  advantage  ;  each  had  clone 
the  thing  to  which  he  was  adapted  ;  prevented 
was  the  waste  of  time  and  energy.  Individual 
ways  were  changing  as  intelligence  of  things 
was  growing  ;  growing  too  were  desires  ;  and 
thus  early  folks  were  led  to  pregnant  changes. 
Of  a  heinous  crime  I  know  that  I  am  guilty, 
am  in  short  worthy  of  the  faggot  or  the  stake, 
and  were  this  the  sixteenth  century,  blessed 
with  close  communion  of  Church  and  State, 
to  heaven  in  a  flaming  chariot  I  might  be  sent 
for  daring  to  differ  from  that  economic  author- 
ity which  imputes  "  to  man's  propensity  to 
truck  and  barter  "  the  grand  social  fact  "  divi- 
sion of  labor."  It  is  a  slight  mistake  and  no 
great  matter  when  toying  little  Freddy  gets  the 
cart  before  the  horse,  but  indeed  a  grave  error 
in  Professor  Philosophic  seeking  to  mould  the 
general  thought.  Division  of  labor  and  ex- 
change, twin-born  social  facts,  implying  prog- 
ress  in  race   methods,  progress  in    race   wants, 


IOO  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

do  as  they  have  always  done  —  work  unseen  on 
social  structure  their  revolutionizing  mission. 

By  act  of  exchange  mutual  benefit  is  derived, 
be  the  process  simple  barter.  But  we  are  civil- 
ized ;  we  have  money.  From  a  remark  which 
I  have  somewhere  seen  a  perception  may  be 
gained  of  the  present  man's  attitude  on  the 
meaning  of  exchange  :  "  And  these  savages  use 
no  money,  but  make  presents  to  each  other." 
Where  did  I  procure  this  gem  ?  Well,  it  may 
have  been,  though  of  this  I  am  not  sure,  from 
volumes  massive,  big  with  learned  lore,  dotted 
o'er  and  o'er  with  the  dullness  of  great  bril- 
liants ;  to  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  I  refer. 
Our  men,  with  industrial  monstrosities,  prog- 
eny of  mercantile  antics,  bourgeois  economics, 
are  travailing  (self-exiled)  from  repose. 

By  that  remark  I  am  reminded  that  for  social 
guidance  and  direction  one  needs  to  simply  note 
the  act  of  exchange,  and  heed  its  implied  mean- 
ing ;  then  individuals  would  attain  an  economic 
equilibrium,  repose  with  peace  and  plenty. 

Ah  !  but  listen,  madam e  of  the  moon.     With 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  10 1 

your  men  the  thought  is  vastly  different ;  to  do 
a  thing  so  human  as  to  look  beneath  the  surface 
for  a  social  meaning,  why  ours,  by  act  so  unhe- 
roic,  would  deem  themselves  unsexed.  When 
individual  connections  through  widening  varia- 
tions broadened  social  integration,  then  necessity, 
the  ruler,  decreed  a  link  between  wealth-objects 
which  should  be  a  common  measure  and  a  medium 
of  common  exchange.  In  discursive  ventures, 
narrative  in  nature,  one  is  forced  to  give  conclu- 
sions founded  upon  implied  contents  of  the  facts 
which  by  them  are  viewed. 

What  was  the  intellectual  capacity  of  primitive 
men  in  matters  of  adjustment,  means  to  ends? 
Was  the  application  of  intelligence  ever  direct  ? 
or  was  the  art  of  an  adaptation  the  invariable 
result  of  an  instinctive  response  to  external 
blind  forces  pressing  upon  them  ?  To  assert 
that  prehistoric  men  deliberated  and  took  con- 
scious initiative,  is  an  asseveration  faced  with 
scornful  look. 

This  philosophic  tyro  is  groping,  feels  the 
need  of  caution  ;  severe  upon   men   of  historic 


102  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

times  is  its  implied  criticism  ;  times  in  which, 
oftener  than  otherwise,  the  birth  of  great  changes 
comes  as  the  result  of  a  slip,  an  accident,  and, 
lo  !  upon  the  social  scene  something  of  full  time 
arrives.  But  at  least  this  much,  without  bad 
taste  and  without  offence,  may  be  accorded  : 
the  beginnings  of  industrial  directions,  the  laying 
of  its  general  mains,  was  the  work  of  our  remote 
ancestors,  those  men  and  women  workers  of  the 
stone  age.  And  yet  "  laborers  are  without  in- 
telligence" and  they  "have  no  head,"  says  plu- 
tocratic authority. 

In  all  periods  of  time  things,  and  means  for 
their  close  association,  form  the  substance  of 
society's  particular  aim.  The  differences  which 
appear  along  the  line  of  industrial  sequence  are 
in  variety  and  amount,  in  method  and  character. 
The  mental  transportation  undergone  must  be 
reckoned  among  the  changes  wrought  in  time. 
Altered  is  the  attitude  of  mind.  With  awe- 
struck admiration,  with  terrorized  timidity, savage 
man  encountered  nature  and  with  her  made 
friends.       But  civilized  man  to  Dame  Nature  is 


AND     MYTHE-MAKERS.  IO3 

impertinent.  Facing  works  of  "  the  Great  I 
Am  "  early  man  felt  terror,  admiration  ;  but,  later, 
men  by  fearful  reverence  are  stirred  only  in  the 
presence  of  their  own  constructions.  Accordr 
ingly,  untouched  by  warning  notes  from  the  high 
pitch  of  industrial  methods,  bright  and  scintil- 
lating efforts,  intellectual  and  moral,  continuously 
are  made  to  maintain  our  social  maladjustment. 
In  spite  of  sore  corns,  the  shrivelled,  shrunken 
boot  must  be  worn  upon  the  growing  foot ; 
would  you  have  the  physical  understanding  out 
of  joint  with  its  mental  counterpart  ? 

The  consideration  of  all  classes  of  phenomena 
involves  that  which  may  be  seen  and  that  which 
must  be  seen.  The  natural  onward  movement 
of  production  called  for  a  helpmeet,  for  a  medium 
of  exchange,  possessing,  as  essential  feature, 
communistic  power  ;  consequently  into  the  social 
drama  money  came  with  intent  to  play  a  friendly 
part.  Left  to  herself,  no  prompter  near,  the 
acting  would  be  natural  ;  but  interfered  with, 
jerked  and  jammed  about,  social  tragedy  is  not 
unnatural. 


104  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Reflecting  upon  the  silent  work  of  common 
units  —  weights  and  measures  —  the  mind  is 
dazed  by  the  magnitude  of  their  service,  for  by 
their  use  not  social  order  only,  but  all  knowledge 
is  made  possible.  A  unique  particular  is  money, 
offering  to  philosophic  thought  an  interesting 
point ;  for  without  cavil  it  is  admitted  to  be  a 
form  arising  from  a  pre-existing,  a  known  func- 
tion ;  and  yet,  after  all,  at  its  work  it  is  throttled 
by  the  wise,  the  "  practical." 

In  the  existing  state  of  industrial  co-ordination, 
speaking  from  a  general  point  of  view,  the  money 
thing  is  an  affair  of  small  importance.  Bulky 
things,  gold  and  silver,  would  in  the  end  but 
clog  the  onward  social  movement.  Is  it  wise, 
friends,  to  prop  a  house  condemned  ?  Glad  to 
get  the  answer  "no;"  but  from  out  the  mass 
such  timbers  may  be  taken  as  will  useful  prove 
in  that  reconstruction  which  wisdom  urges  us 
to  set  about.  Mercantile  or  individual  money 
exists,  though  in  point  of  fact  it  is  more  "in  the 
mind  "  than  out  of  it.  Token  or  social  money 
is  that  form  whose  intrinsic  value  is  unseen  ;  its 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  105 

use  is  based  on  social  confidence,  and  oh  !  the 
game  that  is  played  with  it.  Bankers  could  a 
plot  disclose,  did  they  choose  to  startle  us  by 
divulging  weighty  secrets,  all  the  costliness  of 
their  paper  notes.  But  born  romancers,  they 
prefer  to  deal  in  fiction.  Could  an  eagle,  how- 
ever great  its  power  to  fly,  if  tethered  to  a  tree, 
if  controlled  by  an  individual  thing,  sail  aloft 
and  pierce  the  airy  vault  of  sky  ?  Money  is  a 
communistic  creature,  and  from  bondage  must 
be  freed. 

We  are  yearning  for  great  knowledge.  Earth- 
ward incline  and  tell  us  womenkind,  where  in 
nature,  true  to  its  guide,  you  men  have  found 
the  source  of  an  appearance,  the  location  of  an 
organ  out  of  joint  with  its  official  position,  and 
at  war  with  the  character  of  its  functional  work  ; 
why,  the  thing  is  monstrous  and  absurd.  Just 
imagine  oxygen,  air's  life-giving  element,  frozen, 
pent  up,  north  or  south,  and  our  supply  de- 
pendent upon  the  slow  gyrations  of  those  poles. 
"Om"  be  thanked,  our  mother  nature  perpe- 
trates no  heinous  joke.       The  people  must  rise 


106  SOCIO-FXONOMIC    MYTHES 

up  and  snap  asunder  chains  which  bind  the  bird 
of  an  industrial  growth,  the  phoenix  of  an  econ- 
omic past ;  and  indifferent  to  incidents  immediate 
and  unpleasing,  they,  with  their  parents  of  the 
immortal  revolution,  must  from  their  oppressors 
demand  liberty,  each  standing  firm,  expecting  in 
the  game  of  chance  his  freedom  through  the 
gate  of  death. 

Treason  thus  to  talk,  you  say  ?  Well,  what 
of  it  ?  Brightly  shines  upon  the  road  of  treason 
to  man's  superstitions  the  star  of  progress. 
What  about  our  Declaration  of  Independence 
and  our  revolution  ?  To  freely  wing  the  social 
circle,  money  must  take  its  source,  not  at  the 
north  or  in  the  south,  but  at  its  centre.  And 
now,  what  says  the  devil  ?  "  Give  the  gods  of 
society  (our  laborers)  a  grand  chance  to  possess 
the  offspring  of  their  toil,  the  product  of  their 
labor  motions  ?     Not  if  I  know  it" 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  107 


CHAPTER  V. 

CONFUSION    OF  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    FACTS.       POLITI- 
CAL   ECONOMY  AN  IMAGINARY  CALCULUS. 

A  PAIR  of  social  steeds  ;  upon  them  riders 
sit,  who  reach  their  destination  with  no 
exertion  other  than  to  goad  —  rent,  capitalism. 
By  the  orderly  arrangement  of  society  these  two 
racers  travel  neck  and  neck  ;  they  are  beautiful 
to  look  upon,  they  are  of  high  breed,  have  the 
same  spiritual  father. 

Rent  first  in  social  time  God's  external  gift, 
bequests  to  all  mankind,  did  corner  ;  not  to  be 
outdone  by  an  elder  brother,  capitalism  plants 
the  flag  of  individualism  on  quarters  none  the 
less  divine.  Upon  the  wants,  upon  the  desires, 
upon  the  life-blood  of  the  people,  this  pair  of 
social  monsters  gorge  and  fatten.  Terse  may 
be  an  explanation  ;  still  the  necessities  of  expo- 
sition it  must  fulfil,  else  it  wants  the  stamp  of 


IOS  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

utility.  To  give  this  stately  impress  one  must 
dig  into  the  matter  to  be  explained,  and  must 
bring  into  view  its  internal  and  external  causes  ; 
nor  until  causes  themselves  have  been  examined 
and  with  mathematic  nicety  positioned  as  primary 
and  secondary,  is  the  work  done ;  but  then,  like 
unto  the  solar  spectrum,  the  band  of  expository 
colors  admits  of  being  gathered  into  a  ray  of 
white  explanatory  light.  The  nose  upon  a  face 
sets  all  askew  ;  a  portrait  makes  appearances 
straight  and  orderly  ;  may  be  that's  artistic,  but 
is  the  portrait  true  ? 

Society  is  made  up  of  men,  women,  and  our 
little  folks,  the  children  ;  but  measured  by  the 
human  standard  are  their  relations  straight  and 
true  ?  Separation  of  the  inseparable,  joinment 
of  that  which  is  forever  sundered,  is  the  polit- 
ico-economic art.  How  is  it  done  ?  By  wan- 
tion  abuse  of  helpless  words.  Political  economy, 
to  these  symbols,  is  a  huge  abattoir.  Its  style 
of  putting  words  together  may  be  helpfully  sug- 
gested by  bits  of  colored  tinsel  paper  carelessly 
confused  ;  a  prism  made,   turned,   and  twirled. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  IOQ 

It  was  fine  fun  when  a  child  to  watch  refraction 
of  the  light.  Unfamiliar  with  their  meanings 
orthodox  political  economists  unhome  economic 
terms,  transport  them  to  foreign  shores,  re- 
quiring them  to  fulfil  impossible  conditions,  to 
make  crooked  things  look  straight. 

For  the  delusions  of  this  peculiar  race  there 
are  reasons  pathological.  By  recent  explora- 
tion the  origin  is  traced  to  a  vile  little  fellow 
which  microscopists  call  the  microbe  sycophan- 
cia,  but  social  sanitation  is  gaining  fleet  foot. 
"Labor  unions,"  "  single  tax,"  and  "national- 
ism all  are  working  towards  the  same  grand 
end  —  socialism.  By  and  by  this  pesky  little 
wretch,  if  not  dead,  will  at  least  be  hampered. 

An  exponent  of  our  socio-industrial  creed,  an 
upholder  of  plutocratic  casuistry,  defender  of 
economic  popery,  is  "  Principles  of  Political 
Economy,"  by  John  Stuart  Mill,  himself  a  here- 
tic. His  great  soul  commands  our  friendship, 
but  yourself  can  judge  of  his  mental  poise 
when,  as  word  painter,  he  attempts  the  literary 
picture  of  our  social  bog.     Wealth,  says   Mr. 


IIO  SOCIO-ECONOMIC     MYTHES 

Mill,  is  not  the  indulgences  for  which  you  have 
a  taste,  but  it  is  the  sum  of  money  with  which 
you  purchase  them.  After  this  he  tells  us  that 
money  satisfies  no  want,  that  there  cannot  be  in 
the  economy  of  society  a  more  intrinsically  insig- 
nificant thing  than  money,  except  as  a  contrivance 
for  sparing  time  and  labor;  and  with  truth 
might  he  not  have  added,  the  most  significant 
and  valuable  contrivance  with  which  to  coerce 
the  laborer  into  sparing  his  comforts  and  his 
rights  ? 

At  last,  after  leviathan  turns  and  twists,  Mr. 
Mill  lands  a  real  definition  when  he  says  wealth 
may  be  defined  as  useful  and  agreeable  things 
possessing  exchange  value,  and  upon  which  la- 
bor has  been  expended.  Capital,  says  this  au- 
thor, is  supposed,  by  persons  wholly  unused  to 
reflection  upon  the  subject,  to  be  synonymous 
with  money,  but  money  is  no  more  synony- 
mous with  capital  than  it  is  with  wealth. 
Money  cannot  itself  perform  any  part  of  the 
office  of  capital,  since  it  can  afford  no  assistance 
to  production. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  I  I 

If  reflection  plays  a  logician  such  a  scurvy- 
trick,  ought  we  not  for  conscience'  sake  to  start 
in  opposition  to  Christian  Scientists  ?  Ought 
we  not  to  affirm  there  is  no  mind  ? 

Labor,  says  "  Principles  of  Political  Econ- 
omy," is  either  bodily  or  mental,  muscular  or 
nervolis  ;  and  we  are  assured  that  it  is  essen- 
tial to  the  idea  to  include  those  feelings  of  a 
disagreeable  kind  which  are  connected  with  the 
employment  of  one's  thoughts  or  muscles,  or 
both,  in  a  particular  occupation.  Though  Mr. 
Mill  admits  that  there  are  times  when  muscles 
and  nerves  harmoniously  combine  to  perform 
the  body's  function,  still  by  implication  the 
marrow  of  this  definition  is  that  nervous  matter 
abides  only  in  the  dome  of  the  body  palace. 

At  a  time  rife  with  real  knowledge,  how 
strange  to  find  a  man  thinking  that  muscles 
moved  unbidden  by  their  owner's  thought,  moved 
unvivified  by  life's  electric  nervous  current  ! 
Outside  the  "dismal  science,"  John  Stuart 
Mill  is  scarcely  the  man  to  be  accused  of 
knowing  only  that  which  is  learned  from  appear- 


I  I  2  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MVTHES 

ances  most  superficial,  so  for  that  strange  matter 
reason  can  be  found,  and  I  think  I  have  it  :  he 
was  kindly  in  his  nature,  his  great  soul  revol- 
ted from  a  social  horror — child  labor ;  were 
their  muscles  without  nerves  they  could  not 
suffer ;  thus  he  stilled  his  heart's  great  throb. 
Oh  !  the  little  arms,  and  the  little  legs,  of  little 
toilers  ;  never  do  they  tire  or  ache ;  neither  do 
the  arms  and  legs  of  grown-up  laboring  folks. 

Have  you  a  kitten  ?  Give  a  ball  of  yarn 
to  the  little  creature,  watch  him  turn  and 
turn,  tangled  up  in  the  frolic  ;  no  occasion  for 
alarm,  a  straight  cut  through  the  mess,  so,  and 
pussy  is  out  unharmed  ;  but  oh  !  that  yarn.  Po- 
litical economy  solemnly  affirms  that  though 
labor  may  be  productive  of  something,  yet  may 
it  also  be  productive  of  nothing,  which  nothing, 
these  authors,  before  the  chapter  ends,  trans- 
form into  something.  By  the  skilful  use  of 
their  magic  wand,  and  with  swearing  hand 
uplifted,  they  solemly  aver  that  labor  is  not 
the  creator  of  objects,  but  of  utilities? 

Labor  creates  not  matter,  its  service  to  us 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  I  3 

is  trifling,  merely  puts  things  into  right  pos- 
itions. Mother  Nature  is  the  worker,  politi- 
cal economy  affirms.  What  luck  !  All  my 
life  have  I  nursed  a  mistake,  have  gloried  in  an 
error,  the  thought  that  I  knew  of  at  least  one 
dame  who  upon  male  men  had  the  "cinch  "  all 
the  time.  Ah  !  Dame  Nature,  what  can  ease 
my  sore  heart  ?  Political  economy  dives  deep 
into  things,  scales  dizzy  heights,  and,  when  oc- 
casion offers,  penetrates  man's  nature  ;  but  up 
and  off  with  more  than  locomotive  speed  it 
breaks  the  circumference  of  the  living  circle. 
Unmindful  that  the  generic  term  "  man  "  can 
be  rightly  used  in  argument  only  to  support 
some  general  fact,  such  as  a  universal  desire,  a 
universal  want,  they,  by  a  tortion  movement  of 
being's  circle,  form  a  spiral  and  aid  the  climb  of 
individual  selfishness,  of  plutocratic  spoil. 

What  is  matter  ?  Nothing  less  than  a  ma- 
terializing medium  to  force,  giving  it  oppor- 
tunity to  demonstrate  its  almighty  might. 
With  spirit,  therefore,  matter  is  one  and  in- 
separable ;    it    is  the  same    in    source.     And 


114  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

yet  by  the  thoughtless  and  the  hypocrite  how 
matter  is  abused.  Doubtless  on  the  line  of 
travel  it  has  descended  from  an  ethereal  to  a 
solid  state.  Gas  becomes  ice,  but  is  not  ice 
preservative,  useful  ?  Ask  the  feverish  dying 
man.  Be  it  so;  gross  matter  then  is  heaven's 
ticket  of  leave ;  think  you  that  by  those  celesti- 
als such  is  e'er  forgotten  ?  To  us  gross  mat- 
ter is — well,  what'is  it  not?  It  is  an  opportunity 
for  individualization,  the  means  for  an  earthly 
pilgrimage,  our  donkey  ride. 

Following  the  lead  of  authority  to  the  other 
half  of  the  socio-economic  sphere,  let  us  turn  to 
the  department  of  distribution  of  social  wealth, 
and  here  in  this  sacrosanct  realm  let  us  make 
strenous  effort  to  grasp  validity  of  character  in 
men's  interpretation  of  "the  word"  to  the  hew- 
man.  Friends,  this  have  I  done ;  I  own  with 
humiliation  that  here  upon  this  mount  of  super- 
stition, ignorance,  and  blind  folly,  erupted  by 
male  stupidity,  —  here  reverence  for  the  truth 
wrings  from  my  faltering  pen  this  admission  : 
that    verily  there  is  a  spot  in  space,  a  niche   in 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  I  5 

time,  where  persistent  labor  is  productive  of  no- 
thing, absolutely  nothing  but  mental  vacuity. 

Rent,  says  political  economy  (excluding  from 
the  definition  the  disturbing  etymological  ele- 
ment), is  that  part  of  the  product  of  labor  paid 
to  him  who  by  the  orderly  arrangements  of 
society  has  exclusive  (that  is  unnatural)  control 
over  natural  agents  (opportunities).  Let  us 
suppose  (this  phrase  is  borrowed  from  the 
classics  of  political  economy)  —  let  us  suppose 
this  "  him "  to  be  unsentimental,  in  squatter 
sovereignty  standing  firm,  unwilling  to  yield  a 
jot  of  land  for  folks  to  live  upon,  to  till.  Ah  ! 
but  payment  of  rent  is  the  one  love  charm 
which  ne'er  has  failed  ;  works  a  miracle,  trans- 
forms exclusive  owners,  makes  them  sentimen- 
tal. As  I  am  interested  to  know  what  one  so 
mild  and  gentle  as  yourself  would,  under  cer- 
tain circumstances,  do,  let  us  suppose  that  a 
board  was  brought,  not  by  a  pocket  monkey, 
cute  little  fellow,  but  by  a  big  dangerous  dou- 
ble-headed gorilla,  who,  taking  advantage, 
dropped   it  upon  you   unawares,  and  then   down 


Il6  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

upon  it  sat.  That  flashing  eye  reveals  your 
soul,  and  I  am  answered  :  not  the  time  for  gen- 
tle persuasion,  but  for  motions  called  forth  by 
the  cruel  and  wicked  act,  for  movements  pre- 
servative of  natural  rights,  the  opportunity  to 
walk  free  and  erect.  To  dislodge  a  burden  that 
ought  not,  need  not,be  borne  is  wise  and  right. 
God  has  willed  it. 

But,  friends,  I  beg  you  to  remember,  that 
which  is  lawful,  that  which  is  just  and  right  to 
preserve  the  body  free,  upright,  if  done  in  be- 
half of  the  moral  self,  is  not  only  wicked,  but  is 
positively  criminal,  says  male  law. 

Again,  let  us  suppose  that  one  desirous  to 
perpetuate  Herr  Gorilla's  individualism,  an  eco- 
nomic casuist,  comes  and  assumes  direction 
of  your  feelings  and  your  acts,  addresses  you 
in  this  wise : 

"  Being  a  common,  ignorant  fellow,  I  am  come 
to  bring  you  socio-economic  truths  and  to  give 
you  guidance.  This  position,  my  good  friend, 
is  the  result  of  your  own  misdeeds,  is  not 
caused  by  another  ;  shiftlessness   and  laziness 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  I  7 

bring  their  just  reward.  Had  you  looked  out 
through  the  back  of  your  head  this  gentleman 
could  have  taken  no  advantage  ;  that  he  sits  up- 
on your  back  you  have  yourself  to  thank  ;  you 
refused  to  use  visual  agility.  No  sentimental- 
ist am  I,  so  call  to  mind  your  lost  chance  to 
climb  this  powerful  monster's  back.  Does  a 
realist  urge  you  to  make  known  your  woes, 
to  make  a  noise,  then  is  such  a  one  an  agitator, 
seeking  to  subvert  natural  social  order  by 
stimulating  envy,  by  fomenting  .dissensions, 
planting  antagonism  between  yourself  and 
your  best  friends.  By  the  operation  of  psy- 
chological law,  bringing  your  condition  into  no- 
tice will  have  but  one  effect,  harden  Lord  Go- 
rilla, petrify  his  instruments,  the  middlemen,  turn 
them  into  stone.  To  reach  their  hearts  and 
soften  them  by  your  woes  I  advise  the  ideal- 
istic plan  :  keep  shady,  dark,  never  let  your 
sufferings  and  your  wrongs  be  known.  Only 
such  should  approach  you  as  are  equal  to  the 
recognition  of  real  causes,  Myself.  Upon  your 
feet    allowed,    there  is    possibility    of    treading 


I  I  8  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

more  on  the  heels  than  upon  your  toes  and  then 
let  us  suppose  the  earth  should  quake.  Now 
the  superior  position  of  this  creature  creates  an 
office  ;  under  social  covenant  he  is  trustee,  and 
a  double  function  fulfils  ;  you  are  kept  from 
crime,  and  society  is  protected  from  an  awful 
break.  To  say  otherwise  betrays  hostility  to 
accumulation,  to  private  property,  and  is  an 
invitation  for  barbarism  to  return.  See  it  ? 
What,  you  don't  ? 

"  The  business  men,  brainy  part  of  society, 
express  themselves  well  pleased  with  the  style 
of  these  remarks,  therefore  your  disapproval 
I  conclude  is  a  personal  matter  and  arises  from 
a  desire  to  arbitrate.  I  must  try  another  line 
of  argument.  With  submissive  service  fulfil 
thy  life  mission,  my  brother ;  to  toss  Gorilla 
from  thy  back,  upon  individual  rights  thou 
would'st  be  trampling.  Dost  seek  coercive  leg- 
islative interference  ?  Why,  impious  man,  that 
aim  is  no  better.  Endeavor  to  adorn  the  posi- 
tion whereunto  it  hath  pleased  God  to  merci- 
fully call   such  as  thou.     Be  useful,  timeserv- 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  II9 

ing ;  peaceably  wear  this  double-headed  mon- 
ster's galling  yoke ;  yourself  may  yet  be  free. 
Through  natural  law  this  creature's  soul  by  and 
by  with  charitable  thought  may  overflow  ;  pos- 
sibly his  benevolent  heart  may  burst.  Per- 
chance the  precious  nectar  trickles  down  this 
way  by  thee.  Meantime,  reflect  that  thou  art 
dust,  and  that  it  mattereth  not,  at  least  to  us, 
when  thou  returnest  to  the  whence  from  which 
wert  taken." 

Reflection  with  some  folks  cannot  rise  superior 
to  the  angle  of  external  incident.  The  occur- 
rence which  I  have  to  relate  is  an  episode 
instructive  and  amusing. 

I  was  student  in  the  university  extension 
course,  that  motion  which  was  started  by  some 
English  women  who  hungered  for  collegiate 
learning.  Response  to  their  invitation  to  come 
and  feed  them  was  by  wise  men  put  into  form, 
and  there  resulted  the  university  extension 
course,  a  movement  which  entertains  the 
would-be  student,  which  diverts  the  public 
thought,  thereby  warding  off  the  expiring  groans 


120  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

of  those  grand  institutions  of  no  knowledge  but 
much  learning.  To  the  Oxford  tutor  who 
through  the  evening  had  discoursed  upon 
socialism,  had  just  held  us  all  entranced,  this 
question  was  proposed  by  a  disturbing  element : 
"Will  you  kindly  tell  us,  professor,  what  is  the 
function  of  the  landlord?"  Forward  I  leaned  ; 
I  held  my  breath,  lest  perchance  mine  ear  missed 
sweet  vibrations,  knowledge.  With  calm  and 
dignified  composure,  with  sweet  serenity  upon  a 
smiling  face,  the  lips  were  parted  and  with  voice 
devoid  of  an  emotional  quaver  the  air  was  pierced 
(and  so  were  we)  with  "Why,  to  furnish  land, 
sir."  What  need  of  more  to  tell  ?  Upon  that 
Philadelphia  audience  fell  a  holy  chill,  for  then 
it  knew  in  what  presence  it  had  sat,  how  near 
to  awful  majesties  it  came  ;  the  mediumistic 
realized  that  an  Oxford  tutor,  Mr.  S.,  "don  of 
great  wit,"  upon  ambrosia  had  fed,  had  supped 
with  gods. 

You  are  a  tramp.  Pardon,  monsieur,  no  of- 
fence. I  do  not  mean  one  of  society's  best 
abused,  but  such  man's  opposite.     Let  me  see : 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  121 

as  you  are  inclined  to  philosophize,  and  are  prac- 
tical too,  I  will  assume  that  you  are  a  lover  and 
and  a  collector  of  rare  delf ;  are  in  Japan.  The 
catalogues  of  various  pottery  shops  to  you  are 
brought ;  here  is  one  representing  rare  china, 
exquisite  in  design,  unsurpassed.  Hastily  you 
rise,  will  go  at  once  and  feast  your  eyes,  for,  if 
reality  be  not  outdone  by  an  "ad,"  your  soul 
shall  entertain  delightful  guests,  pleasant  emo- 
tions ;  but,  concluding  that  it  will  be  wise  to 
make  yourself  familiar  with  the  location  and 
character  of  the  precious  earthenware,  you  turn 
again  to  the  catalogue,  well  pleased  with  the 
evidence  which  it  gives  of  the  orderly  arrange- 
ment of  the  shop.  But  this  time  what  do  you 
find  ?     One  raving  bull  set  down  as  ornament. 

With  spectacles  on  and  with  eyes  unaided,  I 
have  searched  a  mound  rich  in  fossil  treasure, 
political  economy ;  and  here  is  its  explanation 
of  rent.  The  individuals  of  society  are,  by  the 
social  phenomenon,  rent,  divided  into  two  har- 
monious factions,  having  a  mutual  interest  in 
each  other.     Rent  is  the  effect  of  a  monopoly,  but 


122  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

a  monopoly  which  is  natural  and  cannot  be  pre- 
vented from  existing.  It  may  be  regulated, 
however,  and  act  as  a  trust  for  the  community 
generally.  God  has  given  to  some  more  intel- 
lect than  he  has  vouchsafed  to  others,  conse- 
quently the  land  is  appropriated  and  held  as  a 
sacred  inviolable  trust  for  less  favored  brethren. 

It  is  not  known  how  in  society  the  system 
of  renting  was  first  established.  Rent  is  the 
spontaneous  offering  of  nature,  or  an  accident. 
By  an  accidental  occurrence  society  is  divided 
into  landlord  and  tenant.  By  this  orderly 
arrangement  its  individuals  are  separately  classi- 
fied into  controllers  of,  and  beggars  for,  oppor- 
tunities to  work  and  live  ;  and  by  this  means 
the  highest  possible  social  functioning  power  is 
obtained. 

Furthermore,  life  is  shown  to  be  the  result 
of  complex  organization.  Special  joints  having 
grown  upon  the  site  of  the  social  fracture,  society 
and  its  atomic  parts  are  enabled  to  travel  eco- 
nomic grounds  with  a  rapid  limping  gait  ;  and 
sustained  is  the  analogy  between  the  living  body 


AND    MVTHE-MAKERS.  I  23 

and  the  social  organism,  as  it  is  used  by  political 
economists. 

The  land  being  limited  in  amount,  it  is  known 
that  a  persevering  athlete  starting  from  a  given 
point,  let  us  suppose  the  Brooklyn  bridge,  and 
going  due  west,  can,  without  reversing  his 
direction,  if  he  survive  the  healthful  exercise  of 
walking  and  wading,  return  to  the  exact  spot 
from  which  he  started ;  therefore  are  there 
consequences. 

Furthermore,  by  an  artistic  use  of  deductive 
reasoning  (this  art  no  monopoly),  it  is  found  that 
as  the  spots  of  land  which  make  up  afield  differ 
in  their  position,  therefore  must  there  be  an 
absolute  difference  in  their  fertility  ;  therefore, 
more  consequences.  It  is  discovered  by  actual 
experiment  that  unlike  the  laboring  atom,  the 
little  factory  child,  one  molecule  of  earth-soil 
cannot  be  made  to  do  the  work  of  a  whole  field, 
of  a  regiment  of  atoms.  Hence  on  this  earth 
consequences  of  no  mean  order  have  arisen, 
which  have  given  a  shock  to  the  plans  of  Omnip- 
otence, and,  but  for  the  law  of  gravitation  pre- 


124  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

venting,  they  might  reach  out  and  destroy  the 
sublime  order  of  celestial  space,  namely,  the 
necessity  to  limit  population,  and  the  necessity 
to  pay  rent.  Well-matched,  beautiful  pair,  in 
you  natural  selection  has  done  graceful  work. 

Explanations  of  rent  admit  of  being  arranged 
in  opposite  sets,  each  starting  from  opposed 
mythical  conceptions,  due  to  the  fact  that  politi- 
cal economists,  in  their  evolution,  had  reached 
that  point  where  begin  attempts  to  philosophize. 

One  set  starts  the  economic  Adam  from  the 
very  topmost  peak  of  best  farming  land,  and  as 
the  race  has  climbed  time's  ladder  downward 
to  more  inferior  soil,  always  downward  goes  the 
farming  man.  Like  their  Maker,  ignorant  of 
"  the  law  of  population,"  the.  unenlightened 
economic  pair,  with  superior  ground  just  enough 
for  two,  brought  forth  the  family  brood.  Natur- 
ally each  one  wanted  that  superior  point  of  land, 
and  so  began  the  crowding  and  the  pushing  of 
brother  man  by  brother  man. 

This  wretched  economic  mythe,  descent  of  agri- 
cultural man,  what    wickedness   has  it  not  be- 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 25 

gotten  ?  Unmoral  thought  and  act,  and  social 
progress  impeded.  Across  the  water  look. 
Primogeniture  and  entail.  The  family  nest 
legally  big  enough  for  only  one,  and  that  one  a 
son.  The  lessons  given  to  Him  by  men  God  is 
slow  in  learning  ;  other  children  come,  and  in  the 
family  home  by  sufferance  only  are  endured. 

Somewhere  have  I  seen  it  stated  (I  think  it 
was  in  their  parliamentary  reports)  that  the 
rational,  cool-headed  Englishman  ascribed  to  the 
increasing  cultivation  of  inferior  soil  the  rise  in 
price  of  corn,  likewise  the  elevation  of  his  rent. 
Then  he  became  mad,  not  at  God,  but  at  his 
poor  mediums,  the  laboring  folk,  for  taking  to 
their  arms  the  little  children  sent.  Ridiculous, 
absurd,  he  argued,  and  the  ocean  near  provi- 
dentially provided  on  either  side  in  which  to 
drown !  Fearing  beggary  from  the  use  of 
too  much  land,  this  orator  seriously  proposed 
arrest  of  the  linear  extension  of  land  cultiva- 
tion ;  no  more  new  farms.  In  stentorian 
tones  he  cried,  To  benevolence  must  be  impu- 
ted the  alacrity  of    those  English  "  land  trus- 


126  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

tees  "  who  enclosed,  appropriated  the  British 
commons. 

To  expend  thought  continuously  in  one  di- 
rection is  exhaustive ;  the  gray  matter  of  the 
brain  will  not  stand  it  ;  the  mind  must  have  a 
change;  so,  when  occasion  demanded,  this  Eng- 
lish orator  has  been  known  to  declare  that,  to 
keep  the  mercantile  value  of  food  up,  some- 
thing must  at  once  be  done  ;  stirred  by  altruis- 
tic impulse  he  shouted,  down,  down  onto  infer- 
ior soils ;  stop  not ;  dip  in,  even  unto  earth's 
fiery  molten  lava ;  anything,  great  gods,  any- 
thing to  make  hard  work,  and  keep  the  price  of 
breadstuffs  up. 

In  other  directions  also  the  Englishman  has 
strange  delusions,  relations  in  the  family.  Yet 
I  am  loth  to  pronounce  him  wholly  lunatic. 
However,  this  is  neither  the  time  nor  the  place 
to  divulge  a  disgraceful  secret. 

I  have  something  to  suggest  before  overtaking 
the  theory  proposed  by  good  old  father  Carey. 
This  pious  man  was  certain  that  capitalism  was 
divinely    elected,    foreordained ;    was    the    pre- 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  27 

destinated  plan  ;  and  as  he  had  to  own  that  things 
were  not  exactly  straight  and  square,  he  under- 
took "  to  vindicate  the  ways  of  God  to  man," 
undertook  to  help  Almighty  God  out  of  a  capi- 
talistic fix. 

I  speak  to  Anarchists,  they  who  attack  our 
"Holy  Bible."  My  suggestion  is  that  the  next 
time  ye  demolish  an  existing  scriptural  order, 
upon  God's  written  word  lay  destroying 
hands,  ye  revise  that  narrative  of  our  first 
parent  pair  and  wholesome  reversion  make.  It 
would  have  a  moral  effect  to  represent  the 
beginning  of  human  travel  as  an  evolution 
climb,  Eden,  the  earthly  paradise,  not  left  be- 
hind, but  to  be  attained  by  man  striving  to 
help,  not  to  hinder,  his  other  selves  ;  attained 
through  deeds  arising  from  the  recognition  of 
equal  rights,  deeds  that  are  human. 

To  justify  capitalism,  to  demonstrate  the 
Tightness  of  rent,  a  tax  upon  the  many  im- 
posed by  the  few,  Henry  C.  Carey  starts  his 
economic  man  from  the  very  worst  point  of 
farming  land  ;  knowledge  of  its  whereabouts,  nil. 


128  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Upon  the  side  of  a  sleep  hill,  this  author  says, 
spots  of  soil  were  found  so  thin  that  high-bred 
wild  trees  disdained  to  make  use  of  them. 
Here  the  Careyian  economic  Crusoe  pitches 
tent  and  plants  grain,  taking  care  about  the 
depth  of  the  hole  ;  exactly  two  inches  and  no 
more,  lest  perchance  through  the  earth-sphere 
that  grain  worked,  coming  up  and  out  on  the 
opposite  side,  all  to  the  benefit  of  the  "  cursed 
foreigner." 

I  do  commiserate  thy  hard  fate,  economic 
Crusoe,  for  the  antiquarian  states  that  without 
axe  or  spade  thou  didst  work.  From  this,  re- 
specting   Mrs.  Crusoe,   we    infer Was 

she  a  gay  and  frivolous  creature,  and  when  not 
at  work  upon  piano  board,  were  her  taper 
fingers  occupied  in  training  bangs,  in  frizzing 
her  front  hair  ? 

Of  the  necessities  of  romance  our  author  has 
an  intuition.  The  success  of  Crusoe  calls  up 
happy  emotions  ;  still  I  admit  that  the  spirit 
of  envy  at  the  same  time  is  evoked  by  the 
greatness  of  Mr.   Crusoe's  work.     That  barren 


AND    MVTHE-MAKERS.  1 29 

soil  yielded  plentiful  return  to  meagre  planting. 
Crusoe  took  the  grain,  pounded  it,  and  bread 
obtained. 

My  head  is  in  a  whirl ;  air,  give  me  air,  and  let 
me  try  to  think.  Merely  from  pounding  seed, 
bread  kneaded,  moulded,  and  freshly  baked 
came  upon  the  table  ready  to  be  eaten. 
Here,  my  erring  sisters,  is  occasion  for  con- 
trition, repentance,  for  a  sin  of  omission  ;  had 
men  been  allowed  to  do  the  housework,  had 
they  been  wisely  left  alone,  we  should  not  now 
have  one  chance  to  mourn  a  "lost  art." 

The  next  picture  from  the  Carey  collection  is 
an  exact  representation  of  the  origin  of  rent. 

I  pause  to  request  the  reader  to  bear  con- 
stantly in  mind  something  peculiar.  Political 
economists  know  of  but  a  single  use  to 
which  land  is  put,  that  of  farming.  Indeed, 
so  far  behind  the  spirit  and  the  doings  of  the 
time  is  this  peculiar  race,  that  in  their  presence 
I  for  one  would  not  dare  to  broach  the  subject 
of  town  lots,  would  expect  to  scare  them  off  the 
planet.     The  beauties  and  the  glories  of  a  pic- 


I30  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

ture  may  be  great,  out  to  obtain  emotional 
benefit  each  for-herself  must  recognize  the  sub- 
lime. 

To  help  us  realize  the  artistic  in  Mr.  Carey's 
word  painting  of  those  ancient  industrial  do- 
ings, whose  effect  is  the  undoubted  cause  of 
rent,  I  advise  a  silent  petition  to  our  mental 
fairy,  imagination,  to  come  and  help  us  com- 
prehend his  hidden  meaning.  No  longer 
marshy  forests  into  which,  warned  by  the  latest 
on  bacteriology,  economic  Crusoe  dare  not 
enter,  but  instead  an  immense  tract  of  equally 
fertile  land.  A  few  families  only,  holding  no 
converse  and  having  no  exchange.  In  three 
years,  without  axes  or  spades,  their  unaided 
fingers  and  toes  raised  two  hundred  bushels 
of  grain,  or  produced  a  farm,  says  historian 
Carey. 

Population  was  not  stationary.  God  is  in  it. 
An  overflow  of  young  people ;  spades  were 
smuggled  to  them ;  mermaids  (?)  did  it. 
AiiotJier  two  hundred  bushels  of  grain  were 
raised,  or  what  is  tantamount  to  it,  more  farms 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  13! 

were  produced.  As  population  increased,  more 
young  people,  more  overflows,  more  spades, 
more  farms.  Natural  order  at  last  was  inter- 
rupted by  a  man  (of  such  "fool  thing  "  woman 
is  not  guilty)  appearing  upon  the  scene  from 
******  No,  I  will  not ;  please  don't  urge 
me ;  in  polite  print  the  word  looks  ugly******. 
This  man,  in  the  midst  of  an  immense  body 
of  equally  fertile  lands,  insists  upon  having 
the  property  of  that  first  batch  of  farmers,  and 
to  induce  the  sacrifice  offers  them  a  subsidy 
and  calls  it  rent ;  and  the  record  further  states 
that  they  left  to  him  the  whole  of  their  im- 
provements. 

Time  rolls  on,  the  good  work  of  farm  pro- 
duction keeping  pace  ;  into  use  come  new  and 
newer  implements ;  anon  those  landlords  are 
compelled  to  make  concessions  unto  him  who 
brought  occasion  for  social  disorder,  brought 
a  cause  of  moral  disease,  rent.  But  woman's 
be  the  glory,  the  renown,  of  opening  prison 
doors  ;  by  bringing  death  unto  the  body,  she 
brought  freedom  to    the    soul.     In  the  opera- 


132  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

tion  of  farm  production,  by  the  use  of  spades 
labor-time  was  saved  ;  in  this  lies  the  nucleus 
of  a  great  wrong  perpetrated,  it  is  affirmed,  upon 
our  sacrificing  landlords. 

To  estimate  the  mercantile  value  of  land,  to 
measure  labor-time,  to  weigh  the  difficulty  of  all 
subsequent  agricultural  effort,  Henry  C.  Carey 
exercised  his  infallible  clairvoyant  powers  upon 
unaided  man's  first  production  of  two  hundred 
bushels  of  grain.  Thus  Mr.  Carey  sowed,  and 
thus  the  politico-economic  student  reaps  a  har- 
vest of  delusions.  From  that  social  epoch  un- 
til 1878  or  1879,  we  are  assured  that  all  the 
landlord  secures  is  but  his  just  reward,  albeit 
received  vicariously  for  landlordism's  sacrificial 
deed.  There  is  admission  that  his  share  of  labor 
products  as  an  absolute  amount  continuously  in- 
creases, but  there  are  protestations  that  as  ^pro- 
portional affair  landlords  are  constantly  defraud- 
ed, are,  in  short,  robbed  of  figures.  Political 
economists  are  ready  reckoners,  they  are  mathe- 
matical adepts,  therefore  the  two  ends  of  rent's 
sliding  scale  are  shown  to  us  beginning  with  25 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I33 

per  cent  of  the  results  of  his  farming  toil,  the 
amount  joyfully  tendered  by  that  first  renter. 
From  then  until  the  time  when  ended  the  Ca- 
reyian  reconnoitre,  decrease  had  done  disastrous 
work,  wretched  landlords  being  left  with  about 
1-200,000,000,000  as  their  share  of  figures,  a 
beggarly  pittance  truly. 

Mr.  Carey  accuses  society  of  base  ingratitude 
to  men  who  manufactured  under  difficulties, 
when,  as  he  says,  it  was  hard.  The  debt  we 
owe  them,  he  makes  out  to  be  incalculably 
great  ;  does  it  through  a  form  of  reckoning  at  a 
compound-interest  rate.  To  their  abstinence 
from  eating  that  two  hundred  bushels  of  grain 
do  we  owe  not  only  our  landlords,  but  likewise 
our  farms. 

Reader,  kindly  abstain  from  holding  me  re- 
sponsible for  the  contradiction,  for  the  queer- 
ness  of  this  piece  of  information  ;  remember,  I 
am  not  the  author,  but  only  his  word  interpre- 
ter. 

Now  this  political  economist  thinks  that  soci- 
ety should  know  its  blessings,  should  be  honest 


134  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

and  not  repudiate  a  debt  to  legitimate  posterity, 
to  lineal  descendants  in  a  direct  line.  I  confess 
that  I  don't  see  it  as  he  does,  but  a  thought 
takes  me  :  that  Theosophic  theory,  reincarna- 
tion —  perhaps  here  is  an  instance  for  its  proper 
application.  Shades  of  the  mighty  past,  can 
it  be  the  "egos"  of  those  axeless,  spadeless 
men,  creatures  called  into  being  by  more  than 
Aladdin  powers,  —  can  it  be  that  they  are  with 
us,  are  in  our  very  midst,  as  plutocrats. 

I  am  wondering  if  Mr.  Carey,  with  Dr. 
Weissmann,  author  of  "  Continuity  of  Germ 
Plasm,"  that  theory  of  heredity  which  has 
supplied  the  possessors  of  the  titles  F.  R.  S., 
M.  A.,  B.  S.,  and  M.  D.  with  food  for  seri- 
ous thought,  with  solid  matter,  —  am  won- 
dering could  it  be  that  they  were  "  masters  " 
disguised,  and  had  left  a  distant  star  to 
bring  to  us  ignorant  mortals  transcendental 
knowledge  ?  Realizing  that  the  uninspired 
with  inspiration  make  sad  work,  I  refer  my 
reader  to  the  Carey  books,  where  harmony  of 
interest    between  the  capitalist  and  the    laborer 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  35 

is  positively  affirmed,  not  through  a  point  of  eco- 
nomic sameness,  equality,  but  through  a  point 
of  difference.  Take  note,  harmony  is  produced 
through  a  cause  for  dispute.  Those  zvickcd fig- 
ures !  While  the  capitalist  and  the  laborer  both 
get  a  continuously  increasing  share  of  the  things 
which  are  by  labor  produced,  the  laborer,  this 
author  avers,  gets  the  best  of  it  in  figures  ;  and 
he  allows  that  this  additional  advantage  should 
make  the  laborer  contented  and  happy.  But 
somehow  it  doesn't. 

Stop  a  bit ;  I  find  that  I  have  been  too  hasty ; 
this  page  has  anew  "goody."  To  make  that 
which  Henry  C.  Carey  has  declared  exists,  to 
make  harmony  of  interest  manifest  itself  and 
work,  invoked  is  the  strong  arm  of  the  law. 
Political  protection,  adequate  and  certain,  must 
prevent  the  consumer  from  moving  from  the 
actual  spot  where  his  breadstuff  he  obtained ;  this 
our  author  is  sure  and  certain  will  make  things 
straight  and  square,  at  least  with  the  ground. 

"All  things  come  to  those  who  wait."  I 
was  on  the  eve  of  discouragement,  thinking  my- 


1 36  SOCIO-ECONOMIC     MYTHES 

self  ill-used  by  a  long  and  fruitless  search ;  at 
last  I  was  made  happy,  had  a  surprise ;  at  last 
I  detected  a  political  economist  with  a  con- 
ception of  reciprocity,  a  perception  of  equality 
in  mutual  relations,  and  all  alive  with  useful 
ideas  of  how  to  make  society's  work  natural. 
I  was  exuberant,  felt  that  now  I  could  claim 
the  honor  of  making  an  addition  to  the  store 
of  philosophic,  to  the  store  of  zoiilogic  know- 
ledge ;  for  had  I  not  discovered  the  law  of 
natural  selection  in  the  very  act  of  supen- 
sion  ?  had  I  not  found  in  this  politico-economic 
author  a  variation  from  and  in  his  particular 
species  ?  But  the  thing  that  puzzled  me  was 
what  did  it ;  not  the  environment,  for  acquired 
characters  are  not  transmitted.* 

Henry  C.  Carey  called  upon  the  legislature 
to  interfere  and  by  protection  prevent  a  wrong. 
The  consumer  must  not  become  a  tourist,  a 
criminal,  this  pious  writer  said ;  no  plot  of 
ground  should  be  defrauded  of  its  natural 
manure,   that    refuse  which  resulted  from    con- 

*  See  Dr.  Weissmann's  "  Theory  of  Heredity." 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  37 

sumption  of  the  particular  grain  which  the  plot 
itself  had  afforded.  This  economic  "  Toddie  " 
•'wanted   to  shee  the  wheels  go  wound." 


I38  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 


CHAPTER    VI. 

CONFUSION  OF  SOCIO-ECONOMIC     FACTS.     POLITI- 
CAL ECONOMY  AN  IMAGINARY  CALCULUS. 
(Continued.) 

COME  with  me  into  that  nation  which  ab- 
hors shopkeepers,  is  itself  a  shop — into 
England.  This  little  country  has  clone  fine 
things,  but,  like  our  own,  has  perpetrated  acts 
which  put  to  blush  the  moral  self.  Their  social 
earthquakes  have  laid  some  of  the  different  forms 
of  tyranny  low,  but,  foolhardy,  their  rebuilding 
was  upon  the  crater,  and  so  in  that  regeneration 
which  awaits  society  they  will  have  more  to  burn 
than  we.  This  nation  has  by  means  fair  and  by 
means  foul  reached  out  in  all  directions,  has  even 
stretched  upwards,  given  birth  to  saints,  one  of 
whom  was  real,  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury. 

This  slight  tribute  paid  to  one  so  truly  good, 
so  truly  great,  I  proceed  to  the  substance  of  this 
chapter,  begin  a  panegyric. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  39 

This  land  boasts  of  kings  and  bloody  saints, 
of  literary  patrons,  and  of  late  possesses  a  real 
wonder,  public  schools.  More  than  a  century 
ago  it  gave  birth  unto  an  intellectual  giant,  a 
Hercules,  who  in  time  became  the  prince  of 
bomb-throwers  ;  and  this  is  how  the  murderous 
attempt  was  brought  about.  There  had  been 
revelations  of  entrepreneur  atrocities,  and  the 
mother-thought  of  this  most  Christian  nation 
was  stirred.  Their  blue  books  tell ;  in  them 
one  finds  enough  to  turn  the  blackest  of  black  ink 
into  red.  Awakened  by  such  disclosures,  the 
moral  thought  began  to  work,  and  this  alarmed 
British  law  and  order. 

To  quell  the  rioters  one  came  from  out  that 
class  who  ordain  each  other  by  the  laying  on  of 
their  own  clean  hands  ;  this  prepares  them  for 
the  gospel  work,  enables  them  to  keep  an  ear  in 
heaven.  By  circumstantial  evidence,  by  relevant 
testimony,  by  inferences  from  his  words  and 
acts,  this  minister  is  convicted  of  hatred  for  the 
oppressed  and  of  love  for  the  oppressor.  His 
brutal  soul  had  no  chord  responsive  to  the  woes 


I4O  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

of  toiling  little  children.  The  heart  of  the  Rev. 
T.  R.  Malthus  was  full  of  the  plutocratic  "coo;" 
but  on  the  Sabbath,  Christ's  love  was  upon  his 
lips. 

Om,  almighty  power,  to  me  incline  ;  I  would 
be  filled  with  holy  fire  ;  then  to  my  soul's  scorn 
of  stupendous  iniquity  I  might  give  sound,  might 
utterance  give  to  my  disdain  for  Malthusianism  ; 
and  then  I  could  express  proper  contempt  foi 
the  intelligence  of  its  acceptors. 

The  reverend  gentleman  threw  upon  the 
spreading  social  thought  his  bomb,  which  proved 
destructive  because  the  people  believed,  did  not 
discover  that  it  was  merely  the  empty  astral 
shell  of  ////thought.  By  the  word  "  law  "  they 
were  asphyxiated. 

Now  less  respect  for  that  term,  and  earnest 
search  beneath  it  to  see  if  a  moral  right  is  un- 
folded or  a  legal  wrong  covered,  would  be  wise 
and  at  least  do  society  no  harm.  Narcotization 
enfeebles  ;  which  accounts  for  the  few  sledge- 
hammer blows  that  fell  upon  that  booby  thing 
which  the  blundering  call  the  "  law  of  popula- 
tion." 


AND     MYTHE-MAKERS.  141 

Stripped  of  its  gauzy  covering,  interpreted, 
this  is  its  nakedness  :  population  exists  as  the 
result  of  people  dying  by  foul  godly  means,  but 
if  the  business  of  foul  destruction  be  taken  out 
of  divine  hands,  be  supplanted  by  moral  means 
(preventives),  then  population  would  exist  as  a 
result  of  people  never  being  born.  Such  is  the 
Malthusian  theory;  "only  this  and  nothing 
more."  Records  which  are  going  down,  down, 
down  to  inferior  posterity,  show  that  the  incred- 
ible occurred. 

The  practical,  the  thinking  Englishman  was 
scared  out  of  his  wits  by  just  a  clergymen's 
bogey,  in  his  mascot  lost  confidence,  expected 
population  to  rise  with  tidal  celerity  and  press 
upon  his  subsistence ;  in  anticipation  he  was 
hungry,  he  was  starved. 

The  wage-fund  doctrine  (nothing  in  it,  no  sub- 
stance, is  "without  form  and  void")  works  hard 
for,  supports,  is  a  fulcrum  to,  the  Malthusian 
theory.  To  political  economy  the  wage-fund 
doctrine  is  both  bone  and  marrow.  This  is  it : 
every  day  in  the  year  there  is  an   exact  amount 


142  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

of  an  unknown  quantity  of  the  social  funds  which 
His  Majesty,  the  Capitalistic  Will,  devotes  to 
the  purposes  of  production  ;  observe,  the  wishes 
and  the  wants  of  the  people  are  not  immediately 
"in  it." 

Because  the  Capitalistic  Will  is  coy,  given  to 
coquetry,  readily  converted  from  a  stable  into  an 
unstable  quantity,  political  economists  affirm  that 
it  is  quite  impossible  to  obtain  dimensions  of 
that  wage  fund.  Reasoning  thus  :  to  know  the 
number  of  capitalists  in  a  country  is  impossible, 
and  lucre  the  number  known,  in  matters  of  pro- 
duction nothing  certain  could  be  based  upon  it, 
for,  owing  to  circumstances  which  nothing  can 
control,  the  Capitalistic  Will  is  ignorant  of  itself 
in  industrial  affairs.  Political  economy  is  dere- 
lict ;  it  fails  to  make  mention  of  the  one  point 
upon  which  this  Will  is  illumined,  viz :  the 
direction,  through  its  aid,  distribution  takes. 

The  case  is  plain  :  knowledge  of  the  wage  fund 
is  a  blank  ;  such  is  the  only  possible  verdict ; 
but  by  their  method  of  deductive  reasoning 
political  economists  are  permitted  to  rest  upon 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 43 

their  want  of  intelligence  the  widest  and  most 
far-reaching  conclusions.  What  would  be  the 
probable  result  did  mechanics  pursue  a  similar 
course  ?  We  are  saved  ;  the  laborer  is  unintel- 
ligent, heaven  be  thanked. 

Malthusianism  protests  that,  at  any  one  period 
of  time  there  is  not,  of  the  products  of  labor, 
a  sufficient  amount  in  existence  to  supply  the 
actual  wants  of  the  people  or  to  satisfy  their 
legitimate  desires  ;  therefore  a  law  of  population 
is  at  the  helm  to  wreck  a  portion  of  the  human 
crew.  Apparently  one  holy  man  was  unac- 
quainted with  productive  processes,  about  the 
human  method  to  obtain  subsistence,  food,  had 
no  thought  ;  seems  to  have  deemed  it  a  case  of 
manna  and  of  grab.  Thus  equipped,  the  Rev. 
T.  R.  Malthus  valiantly  sprang  to  the  aid  of  the 
defenseless,  to  the  help  of  the  aristocrat,  and 
poured  out  vollies,  not  of  grape  or  canister,  but 
words  taking  damnable  shape.  His  the  holy 
mission  to  minister  unto  the  highborn,  to  sustain 
their  fainting  hearts,  and  to  uphold  their  falling 
arms. 


144  SOCIOECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Unto  the  laborer,  therefore,  thus  he  spake  : 
In  your  interests  I  have  travelled  far  and  wide, 
have  been  to  Ireland,  crossed  the  Channel,  and 
through  the  grace  of  God  am  back  in  England, 
am  home  safe.  1  have  been,  I  have  seen,  and 
I  am  conquered,  am  here  to  speak  in  your  be- 
half. I  find  that  your  class,  mainly  through 
perversity,  prefer  huddling  together,  and  are 
ignorant  of  the  land's  limited  capacity  to  hold 
numbers.  When  open  fields  are  all  around, 
when  there  is  the  broad  country,  why  betake 
yourselves  to  close  quarters  ?  With  the  sea  on 
either  side  such  a  course  is  reprehensible.  I 
advise  you  to  work  nights,  be  industrious,  plant 
piles,  become  ocean-dwellers.  Furthermore  it 
is  laid  upon  me  to  rebuke  the  style  of  your 
manners  ;  they  are  coarse,  set  at  naught  noble 
example,  the  culture  and  refinement  of  a  mano- 
rial lord.  Now,  why  don't  you  keep  yourselves 
like  gentlemen  ?  Unto  me  has  been  revealed 
the  cause  of  your  biting  poverty,  of  your  galling 
want ;  and  as  an  obedient  servant  of  the  Lord 
the  source  I   must   make  known — solely  your 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 45 

own  fault.  Too  many  in  Christ's  vineyard,  re- 
dundancy, excess  of  numbers.  Though  the  Lord 
hath  given  you  powers,  yet  their  use  offends  my 
lord.  Your  children's  hunger  presses  upon  sub- 
sistence, prevents  the  kennels  of  my  lord  from 
increasing.  My  lord  would  have  his  own,  his 
heart  is  sore  ;  obey  the  mandates  of  the  Lord, 
submissively  take  up  the  yoke  ;  it  is  easy,  and 
the  burden,  let  us  pray  that  you  may  find  it 
light.  Cut  down  your  numbers  until  they  are 
an  exact  fit  of  the  wage  fund.  What  that  is, 
and  how  to  be  reached,  lies,  I  am  aware,  in  a 
London  fog.  Precise  knowledge  is  not  the  forte 
of  my  set.  The  wage  fund  docs  exist,  you  know. 
In  successful  efforts  to  find  out  about  it  lies 
the  scheme  of  your  class'  social  salvation.  The 
English  laborer  is  not  a  "blooming  idiot,"  does 
not  expect  through  the  works  of  another  to 
attain  unto  an  earthly  heaven.  Besides,  in  an- 
other direction  lie  the  labors  of  your  betters  ; 
they  are  working  to  bring  about  for  you  the 
opposite  social  state.  Your  numbers  diminished, 
and  the  size  of  the  wage  fund  remaining  just 


I46  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

the  same,  it  is  plain  that  each,  existing  laborer 
must  through  the  natural  movement  of  economic 
funds  receive  his  pro  rata  share  of  that  surplus 
called  into  existence  by  his  abstinence.  What 
that  share  would  be  depends  upon  division. 
There  are  times  when  knowledge  of  mathematics 
would  be  well,  but  as  a  rule  it  would  not  help 
the  laboring  class  meekly  to  fulfil  the  station 
whereunto  it  hath  pleased  God  to  call  them. 
Care  has  been  taken  not  to  blunder,  not  to  sin 
against  ourselves  by  permitting  them  to  have 
good  schools ;  they  would  spoil  our  servants, 
make  them  restless  and  to  us  unprofitable. 
Who  says  that  we  are  Bushmen  ?  We  are  Eng- 
lishmen of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. I  bid  laborers  hearken  unto  God  ;  the 
voice  is  heard,  but  needs  an  interpreter,  and  I 
am  at  your  service. 

Uncover  heads.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God  : 
It  hath  repented  me  the  giving  unto  the  laborer 
powers  of  reproduction  equal  to  those  bestowed 
upon  the  aristocrat.  In  relationing  your  kind 
unto  the  earth,  Omniscience  committed  a  mathe- 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 47 

matical  blunder,  to  correct  which,  from  heavenly 
quarters  scourges  are  sent  upon  you — war,  crime, 
famine,  evictions,  pestilence,  licentiousness,  vice, 
misery,  and  disease.  These,  I,  the  Rev.  T.  R. 
Malthus,  have  named  the  positive  checks  to  pop^ 
ulation.  Now  credit  me,  if  you  please,  with 
the  great  discovery  of  the  Christian  era,  God's 
mode  of  dealing  with  the  recreant  class  who  ex- 
ercise the  powers  Himself  hath  given.  Indeed 
I  am  not  done  ;  I  would  incite  you  to  a  filial 
deed :  head  off  your  Heavenly  Father  by  moral 
means,  by  preventives  ;  do  not  marry ;  children 
then  cannot  be  born.  Socialists  proclaim  that 
men  are  free  and  equal,  born  so  ;  sheer  nonsense, 
you  know.  Such  doctrine  is  subversive  of  law 
and  order.  The  phrase  is  pretty,  to  be  sure, 
and  upon  occasions  useful  ;  acts  as  fuel  to  keep 
the  party  warm  in  a  campaign  attack.  In  a 
country's  constitution  it  looks  well,  and  from  the 
pulpit  it  is  full  of  meaning.  Still  it  is  mere 
fancy  ;  nothing  practical  in  it.  "  Hinds,"  peas- 
ants, the  equal  of  myself  or  my  lord  of  the  manor  ? 
Not    a    "bloody    bit    of     it."     Socialists    are 


I48  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

"blooming  idiots."  By  natural  right  the  prod- 
ucts of  your  toil  your  own  ?  Another  monstrous 
theory  ;  stirs  up  strife  and  envy,  turns  you 
from  the  narrow  path,  and  by  preventing  humility 
hinders  your  upward  movement.  Take  away 
submission  unto  wrong  and  tyranny,  what  is  to 
call  out  pure  white  thoughts  ?  what  is  to  uplift 
the  laborer's  soul  ?  Samson-like,  socialists 
would  pull  down  the  bulwarks  of  the  temple — 
of  society — and  would  keep  you  laborers  out  of 
heaven  ;  heed  them  not  ;  turn  to  us  ;  believe  and 
live.  If  there  is  a  thing  that  makes  me  furious, 
fills  my  soul  with  righteous  wrath,  it  is  to  find 
the  laboring  class  claiming  their  own.  To  want 
natural  rights  is  unaltruistic,  is  selfishness  —  in 
the  proletariat. 

Unregenerate,  would  you  falsify  your  Lord, 
evade  the  curse  pronounced  in  Eden  ?  Listen  : 
by  the  sweat  of  your  brow,  by  the  toil  of  your 
hands,  others  all  the  days  of  your  life  shall  live 
and  eat.  Still  ye  doubt,  are  not  converted  to 
the  truth,  but  are  wavering  in  the  belief  that 
ye  press  upon  subsistence,  that  ye  make  times 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 49 

hard,  and  are  the  means  of  raising  rent. 
O  stiff-necked,  perverse  race,  why  so  obdu- 
rate ?  The  intelligent,  thinking  class  were 
convinced  before  the  words  of  wisdom  were 
fairly  out  of  my  mouth.  An  object-lesson 
will  serve  to  make  plain  the  injurious  ef- 
fects upon  society  of  an  increase  in  your  num- 
bers. Bring  me  chips  ;  while  I  hold  this  one, 
place  beneath  it  each  of  the  others  in  succession. 
There,  by  such  arrangement  two  obscure 
events  are  made  plain,  the  downward  move- 
ment of  land  cultivation,  and  the  rise  in  rent. 
Increase  of  rent  arises,  you  perceive,  from  an 
elevation  of  the  Adamic  farm,  fresh  strips  of 
cultivation  being  slipped  beneath,  naturally  it 
moves  upward,  and  along  with  it  goes  rent, 
"you  know."  Science  makes  the  duty  of  the 
dependent  (?)  class  plain  ;  curb  your  passions,  your 
desire  for  social  joys  stifle,  for  together  this  twain 
must  go  down  and  out.  Thus  saith  my  lord  : 
Not  for  you  are  babies'  smiles  and  babies'  love, 
the  child's  help  to  climb  ;  these  are  for  your 
betters  ;  they  must   exercise  their   powers,  and 


I  50  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MVTHES 

the  world,  "  you  know,"  must  be  peopled. 
Upon  the  sacrificial  altar  bind  yourselves. 
The  Lord  loveth  a  cheerful  giver,  delights  in 
slaughtered  lambs  ;  believe  and  live.  God  so 
loved  the  world  that  he  gave  His  only  be- 
gotten Son  that  men  might  not  perish,  but 
have  ample  opportunity  in  which  to  hate  and 
rend  each  other,  have,  in  short,  life  ever- 
lasting. Stop  a  bit  ;  I  may  be  hasty  ;  to  com- 
promise is  possible ;  man  is  not  ungenerous 
by  nature.  As  an  agent  for  the  plutocrat  I 
offer  you  easy  terms.  You  must  not  allow 
your  little  ones  to  grow  up,  and  British  laws 
shall  be  made  holding  you  responsible  for 
dereliction  in  your  wives,  should  they,  during 
the  three  score  years  and  ten,  fail  to  provide 
them  with  breast  milk.  These  conditions, 
while  affording  your  class  ample  opportunity 
for  domestic  joys,  will  protect  the  subsistence 
of  my  lord  from  objectionable  slaughter.  You 
reject  the  terms,  proposing  to  trump  my  part- 
ner's ace,  beat  us  at  our  game  ?  It  shall 
not  be  ;  I  protest ;  God  intends  "hinds  "  humbly 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  5  I 

to  follow  lead.  I  will  besiege  the  throne  of 
grace,  enlist  the  Universal  Father  in  our  pluto- 
cratic cause, 

O  Thou,  Maker  of  the  heavens  and  of  the 
earths,  our  Father,  from  thy  distant  abode  draw 
near,  vouchsafe  divine  aid  to  a  conspiracy  ;  we 
want  social  order,  our  peace  ;  want  to  be  freed 
from  this  talk  of  equal  individual,  talk  of  in- 
born natural,  rights  ;  wilt  save  us  from  social 
heresy?  O  thou  Omnipotent,  Omniscient  One, 
in  whom  dwelleth  not  the  possibility  of  error, 
neither  the  shadow  of  a  wavering  turn,  have  I 
thine  ear  in  which  to  modestly  unfold  a  scheme  ? 
Unto  the  laboring  class,  winged  by  the  light- 
ning of  Omnipotent  desire,  do  thou  send 
thoughts  of  humble  obedience,  convict  them 
of  their  duties  unto  us.  Seemeth  it  well  to 
foster  within  their  minds  the  hope  of  an  equal- 
ity in  heaven  ?  Then  mayest  Thou  do  it  ; 
but,  Lord,  grant  my  righteous  request ;  help  us 
to  keep  this  class  our  profitable  servants  for- 
ever and  forever.  To  secure  this,  our  hearts' 
desire,  is  there  sure  way  known  to  Thee  ?     Why, 


152  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

then,  send  Thine  emissary  unto  me ;  I  would 
be  prepared  for  the  work,  and  unto  Thy  name 
shall  be  the  glory. 

With  an  unctuous  "Amen,"  Holy  Tommy's 
prayer  was  ended. 

On  Creation's  rosy  morn,  oh  !  why  was  I  not 
there  to  stay  the  arm  of  God,  bid  Him  for 
guidance  wait  for  Malthus,  the  overwise  di- 
vine ?  Let  us  assume  that  there  are  institu- 
tions which,  by  religious  antics,  fill  young 
men  with  piety,  warranted,  for  a  price,  to 
overflow  ;  and  now  let  us  suppose  that  from 
such  a  manufactory,  which,  from  want  of  know- 
ing better,  I  call  a  theological  seminary,  a  pro- 
fessor comes  and  informs  us  that  in  celestial 
regions  there  is  war,  Satanic  majesty  leads  a 
riot,  has  thrown  the  Author  of  being  over  the 
"battlements  of  heaven,"  and  now  claims  the 
works  of  God  as  his  very  own. 

A  pamphlet  lies  before  me  ;  its  author,  a  con- 
vert to  the  Malthusian  creed,  is  a  woman.  Her 
intel1"  \t  was  awry,  but  her  soul  with  moral 
Vis    fired.        Defying    social    prejudice, 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  53 

bigotry,  braving  personal  danger,  openly  she 
brought  knowledge  of  "  moral  preventives " 
unto  the  married  poor.  Such  an  act  was  no- 
ble, heroic,  and  of  a  true  cause  was  worthy. 
By  helping  them  to  keep  down  their  num- 
bers, she  thought  to  better  the  workingmen's 
hard  lot.  Could  they  but  secure  better  quar- 
ters, could  they  but  pay  higher  rent,  why 
then  in  England  a  land  revolution  might  be 
avoided.  To  society  this  woman's  heart  is  an 
ornament,  but  her  head  —  well,  of  that,  ample 
explanation  has  been  made  by  able  critics ; 
they  have  said,  Annie  Besa'nt  has  a  male  intel- 
lect. 

This  is  the  place  for  a  disclosure,  that  Brit- 
ish secret.  Have  I  your  permission  to  make  a 
few  explanatory  remarks  ?  Prompted  by  self- 
consciousness  our  early  Christian  Fathers 
showed  tender  consideration  to  certain  impul- 
ses :  their  benevolence,  however,  was  not  a  uni- 
versal manifestation,  for  they  lacked  the  Christ- 
thought,  the  communistic  feeling.  Upon  lo- 
cation in  the  living  field  depended  the  color  of 


I  54  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTIIES 

the  impulse,  was  it  black  or  was  it  merely  sun- 
burnt. Accordingly,  what  in  men  was  natural 
and  to  be  expected,  and  by  anticipation  provided 
for,  was  in  women  undivine  and  on  occasions 
loathsome  and  horrible.  The  pagan  move- 
ment to  equalize  the  sexual  relation  and  secure 
the  establishment  of  that  much  social  right, 
was  by  this  pious  discrimination  arrested,  for 
Christians  had  a  higher  aim.  This  obstruction 
to  the  progress  of  the  right  is  accounted  for  by 
a  change  in  the  mouthpiece  of  religious  oracles. 
Among  the  unillumined,  among  pagans,  oracu- 
lar instruction  was  often  the  vocation  of  women  ; 
but  among  the  Christians  this  performance  was 
purely  by  pure  men.  My  English  brother  like- 
wise is  self-conscious;  he  is  a  Christian,  is  just 
as  good  as  good  can  be  to  an  important  weak 
personage,  himself ;  but  then  his  moral  "  I " 
is  sore,  is  weak  of  sight,  sees  differences  where 
none  exist. 

To  illustrate  :  A  London  court  room.  The 
presiding  judge  is  not  a  Hottentot,  is  an  English- 
man.    The  case  ?     Ah,  well,  I  am  compelled  to 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1  5  5 

own  that  upon  occasion  the  wicked  patience  of 
long-apprenticed,  well-trained  English  wives 
does  give  out,  and  then  unto  the  common  law 
they  turn,  to  find  it  a  mythe.  Plaintiff  is  a 
woman,  a  wife.  Defendant,  her  husband,  not 
defiant,  but  happy  and  complacent,  for  he 
knows.  Unto  the  lady  the  judge  turns  and 
with  surprised  tones  inquires  the  nature  of  her 
charge.  Thinking  his  ear  had  belied  he  re- 
peats :  "Adultery?"  She  bowed  her  head. 
Confused,  the  judge  asked  a  superfluous  ques- 
tion :  Did  he  deny  it  ?  The  answer  was  a 
stifled  sob  and  an  outraged  look.  Well,  really, 
madam,  in  the  manners  of  a  high-bred  English 
gentleman  am  I  wanting  if  I  venture  to  inquire 
what  at  the  hands  of  our  common  law  you  seek  ? 
Divorce  ?  Incredible  ;  that  decree  in  favor  of  a 
woman,  and  the  charge  merely  adultery,  would 
reflect  upon  the  justice  of  past  sex  administra- 
tion, would  establish  a  far-reaching  and  a 
moral  precedent.  This  court  is  not  profane ; 
will  not  by  such  decision  set  at  naught  the 
teaching   of  the  Church,    commands  of    Christ. 


I56  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

He  suffered  not  a  woman  to  usurp  authority,  to 
tell  her  husband  he  should  not  commit  Eng- 
lish adultery.  Can  it  be  that  English  wives 
have  lost  their  piety,  turned  jesters,  gone  mad, 
and,  because  of  wounded  feelings,  would  tram- 
ple upon  their  marriage  vows  "  for  better  or  for 
worse,"  would,  to  gratify  mere  pique,  cast  out 
a  loving  husband,  separate  a  father  from  his 
children,  and  rend  the  family  circle  ?  Why, 
the  thing  is  positively  absurd.  The  judge's 
charge  is  to  the  woman  :  Such  resentment, 
madam,  is,  to  say  the  least,  unwomanly. 
Have  you  read  Gladstone  ?  It  would  be 
well  to  make  this  occasion  a  means  of  grace. 
To  invite  oppression  is  becoming  in  an  Eng- 
lish wife ;  meek  submission  unto  wrong  is  wom- 
anly ;  nice  is  the  symmetrical  relation  between 
tryannous  oppression,  uncomplaining  endurance, 
and  beautiful  uplifted  thoughts  and  feelings. 
The  pious  spirit  is  glad  of  any  chance  to  reach 
upward  unto  heaven,  even  though  it  be  through 
her  husband  going  downward  unto  *  *  *  *. 
Case    dismissed ;    nothing    in    it    but    a    worn- 


AND    MYTHE-MAK.ERS.  I  57 

an's  whim.  Monstrous !  Why,  the  husband 
was  not  guilty  of  cruelty.     Next. 

And  again  before  that  judge  stood  man  and 
woman ;  positions  were  reversed.  And  the 
lady  was  veiled.  The  charge  against  your  wife  ? 
Adultery  ?  Did  she  deny  it  ?  Indeed,  your 
honor,  that  she  did,  but  I  have  undoubted  proof. 
Crossing  himself,  after  a  mumbled  prayer,  the 
judge  commands  the  sergeant  to  light  the  in- 
cense, to  bring  him  holy  water,  and  thus  en- 
sured against  the  contagion  of  a  moral  leper,  he 
addressed  the  man  :  Wronged  husband,  whose 
purity  is  fouly  besmirched,  take  from  the  com- 
mon law  redress,  an  unlimited  divorce.  Upon 
men  the  marriage  vow  is  not  a  pressing  bond  ; 
his  the  right  to  rend  the  family  circle.  Take 
the  children. 

Who  denies  that  nature,  on  the  ownership  of 
child,  her  will  declares  by  a  sovereign  fact,  gives 
us  the  holographic  testament,  but  by  La  C< in- 
vade we  contest  the  will,  declare  nature  to  be  of 
unsound  mind.  Nothing  is  absurd  if  men  so 
decide.     The  court   would   have   English  wives 


I  5 vS  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

to  know  they  arc  not  living  in  times  or  places  of 
gross  immorality,  where  the  laws  recognize  a 
woman's  equal  right  to  commit  an  equal  sexual 
wrong.  Then  with  sympathetic  mien  the  court 
turns  unto  the  demoralized  husband,  and  in  hurt 
tones  speaks  thus  :  We  men  by  the  injury  you 
have  sustained  suffer  loss  of  dignity,  for  when 
an  English  wife  commits  adultery  she  criminally 
invades  the  man's  domain,  encroaches  upon  the 
English-man's  prerogative  ;  therefore,  unto  you, 
our  damaged  brother,  the  court  cheerfully  offers, 
in  addition  to  divorce  and  child,  the  friendly 
balm  of  sympathy. 

Hm  !  why  is  it  that  the  quality  of  English 
male  adultery  is  so  superfine  that  British  law 
stamps  it  as  the  English  wife's  perquisite  ? 
For  a  magician,  not  to  far-off  India  need  we  go. 
The  Englishman's  thought  can  potentize  a  vile 
thing,  can  change  it  from  gross  matter  to  pure 
essence,  spirit.  What  a  pity  that  the  operation 
of  this  power  of  magic  transformation  is  limited 
to  just  the  English  man's  own  bestial  acts.  But 
this  purity  is  found  to  be   a   bother,  because  to 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  59 

match  in  bulk  and  weight  the  coarse  product 
of  civilized  countries,  British  mercantile  sense 
compels  something  more  to  be  added — a  bloody- 
nose  or  two  black  eyes — English  cruelty. 
Measured  by  the  principle  of  equal  natural  rights, 
the  adulterous  law  of  the  most  Christian  nation 
is  found  to  be  incestuous,  befouls  its  parents, 
and  is  a  breeder  of  vice.  I  do  so  love  to  get  at 
causes,  knowing  that  they  are  always  present  as 
external  and  internal. 

Hm  !  what  can  be  the  reason  for  such  adulter- 
ous difference  ?  Can  it  be  wholly  metaphysical — 
the  "big  head"  ?  But  this  explanation  brings 
knowledge  only  one  step  nearer ;  the  puffed 
head  is  now  to  be  accounted  for ;  its  external 
and  internal  causes  are  to  be  searched  after. 
Beginning  with  the  cause  we  know  the  most  about, 
our  first  search  is  for  the  external  reason  of  the 
Englishman's  metaphysical  condition,  and  its 
resulting  sex-thought.  Schools  ?  Well,  hardly ; 
too  recent  is  this  opportunity  for  the  great 
English  majority  whose  chance  for  an  education 
depended    formerly    upon    the    workhouse  and 


l6o  SOCIO-ECONOMIC     MYTHES 

God's  vicegerents,  the  clergy.  No,  the  cause, 
whatever  it  may  be,  arose  not  from  an  education. 
The  Church  ?  What  !  that  institution  which 
exhibits  divinity,  which  embodies  and  expresses 
in  its  works  the  Christ  principle  ? 

Why,  before  I  can  go  further  this  must  be 
looked  into.  As  it  is  my  habit  to  reduce  every- 
thing as  far  as  possible,  make  of  it  an  object- 
lesson,  in  order  that  my  mind  may  be  by  the 
help  of  eyes  or  ears  aided,  you  will,  I  am  sure, 
excuse  if  I  proceed  along  my  customary  lines, 
write  the  statements  out  in  full  and  then  com- 
pare. 

According  to  the  Christian  Church,  Jesus 
said,  I  suffer  not  a  woman  to  teach.  I  —  suffer 
— not — a  woman — to — teach.  That's  astonish- 
ing !  Now,  did  Christ  want  His  freedom  ham- 
pered ?  I  can't  believe  it.  According  to  the 
Bible  Jesus  said,  Do  ye  unto  others  as  ye  would 
that  they  should  do  to  you.  This  has  the  true 
ring.  But  these  two  statements  I  cannot  cor- 
relate. The  Christ  principle  and  its  opposite  do 
not  meet  in  fraternal  embrace  ;  water  pure  flows 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 01 

from  the  skies,  not  water  muddy.  Besides,  I 
something  know  of  the  Christ  principle,  and  am 
sure  that  to  impertinent  interference  with  equal 
rights  it  does  not  prompt  a  body. 

The  Bible  may  help  me  out  of  the  difficulty 
which  the  Christian  Church  begets.  As  I 
thought,  not  Jesus,  but  a  man,  one  Saint  Paul, 
did  that  tyrant-talk,  calling  himself  the  true 
apostle  of  the  Lord.  To  have  grasp  upon  gen- 
eral principles,  to  feel  their  meaning,  is  indeed 
joyful,  gives  unto  one  a  certitude  of  truth,  pre- 
vents being  driven  off  by  just  a  puff  of  wind. 
But  tell  me  how  it  happened  that  the  Church 
got  so  befuddled,  confusing  the  teachings  of 
Saint  Paul  with  those  of  Jesus  Christ ;  instead 
of  standing  up  erect  it  prefers  to  grovel,  to  go 
upon  all  fours. 

The  matter  is  beyond  my  ken.  My  intellect 
is  woman's  ;  now,  had  I—  But,  no,  I'll  not  re- 
pine, not  long  for  a  brain  of  that  kind ;  for  my 
use  it  is  too  heavy.  Of  one  thing,  though,  I  am 
sure,  comparative  sociology  shows  that  men  have 
in  sex  matters  made  grand  progress,  have  evolved 


1 62  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

in  brutal  doings,  have  the  male  of  our  four- 
footed  friends  outdone,  put  to  shame  their  mus- 
cular intellects.  In  all  Christian  lands  women 
teach,  the  schools  are  full  of  them,  and  yet  Saint 
Paul  forbade  it  ;  but  necessity  is  impious  ;  and 
then,  too,  women  by  Christian  men  are  gotten 
to  do  big  work  for  very  little  money. 

Saint  Paul  tells  us,  When  I  was  a  child,  I 
spake,  understood,  and  thought  as  a  child,  but 
when  I  became  a  man  I  put  away  childish 
things.  In  proof  of  this  I  further  quote  :  Judge 
in  yourselves,  is  it  comely  that  a  woman  pray 
unto  God  with  head  uncovered  ?  Now,  my 
Christian  sister,  have  you  heeded  this  injunction  ? 
Came  the  spirit  upon  you  unaware,  ere  lifting 
heart  in  silent  prayer, — say,  did  you  run  and  get 
a  bonnet  ?  With  awful  fear  my  lips  are  sealed ; 
I  have  sinned  against  the  Holy  Ghost.  "  Braided 
hair  !"  But,  then,  braided  hair  in  hot  weather 
is  comfortable.  To  go  with  heads  uncovered 
the  men  by  Saint  Paul  are  commanded,  in  order 
that  the  image  and  the  glory  of  God  may  be  seen. 

Shutting;  our  ears  to    the  utterances  of  the 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 63 

Church,  closing  the  lids  of  the  Holy  Bible,  let 
us  turn  to  the  "  profane  "  works  of  the  Almighty. 
There  we  find  the  glorious  sun  and  stars ; 
there  our  souls  drink  in  the  moon's  serene 
beauty  ;  and  there  we  behold  walking  miracles, 
women  and  men  accompanied  by  near  kins-people, 
dumb  hair-clothed  creatures.  Indeed,  I  am  con- 
vinced of  the  relationship  of  all.  Still,  in  some 
we  find  persistent  evidence  of  a  close  tie — -hair 
upon  the  human  face.  Is  not  that  indicative  of 
the  character  of  our  descent  ?  Our  brothers 
betray  the  species'  highborn  ancestry ;  they 
bear  the  family  crest. 

Women,  come,  let  us  atone  for  past  neglect ; 
in  every  park,  in  every  home,  unto  Saint  Paul 
let  us  rear  an  altar.  Listen  !  Aged  women  are 
to  teach  young  matrons  to  be  sober,  to  love 
their  husbands,  to  love  their  babies,  to  be  obe- 
dient unto  a  man,  and  to  keep  house.  Now,  I 
appeal  to  your  sense  of  gratitude,  can  any- 
thing less  paltry  than  an  Eiffel  tower  bespeak 
our  thanks  for  that,  our  "header."  The  thing 
that  pleases  me  is  to  be  told  that  which  I  al- 


164  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

ready  know  ;  as  now  to  get  food  into  my  stomach 
by  putting  it  into  my  mouth,  or  if  I  would  look 
upon  the  sky,  outward  and  upward  is  the  veiw. 
To  Saint  Paul  men  ought  to  be  more  than 
thankful,  for  if  in  themselves  they  are  incap- 
able of  calling  out  the  friendly  feeling,  the 
wife's  loving  thought,  then  our  affection  they 
all  owe  to  that  dictation. 

And  the  little  children,  what  must  have 
been  their  lot  before  this  true  apostle  rose  ? 
Nature  unto  the  cow  was  kind ;  instinctively 
this  mother  cares  for  her  young.  No  need  for 
a  Saint  Paul  to  come  to  her  guidance. 

Much  that  seems  obscure  I  comprehend,  but 
I  own  to  being  "  beat "  by  this  particular 
note  of  his  instruction  :  teach  the  young  women 
to  be  sober.  The  fact  is,  I  gauge  the  probable 
conduct  of  girls  by  that  of  my  habitual  as- 
sociates. 

Wives,  submit  yourselves  unto  your  husbands 
as  it  is  fit  in  the  Lord.  Now,  as  my  sex  have 
ideas  which  in  individual  instances  differ  as  to 
what   is  meet  and  fit,  Paul  in  the  performance 


AND    MYT HE-MAKERS.  1 65 

of  his  duty  was  remiss  ;  with  this  gospel  legisla- 
tion a  recipe  was  needed.  As  it  is,  we  women, 
for  all  time,  are  by  him  left  without  exact 
knowledge.  You  see,  he  knew  that  in  Eve 
we  had  a  real  mental  start,  for  he  said  that  if 
women  will  learn,  let  them  ask  of  their  husbands 
at  home.  If  a  courageous  wife  willingly  faces 
the  almost  certain  danger  of  a  disappointment, 
attempts  the  heroic  by  obeying  this  mandate, 
now,  don't  we  know  the  result  ? 

Paul's  field  of  work  appears  to  have  been 
among  women,  and  with  the  instinct  of  a 
politico-economic  writer,  he  tried  to  eliminate 
disturbing  elements  from  his  calculations.  I 
wonder  why  he  was  divinely  called  to  the  mis- 
sion. Those  Eastern  women,  I  expect,  bothered 
poor  Paul,  belittled  him  by  their  questioning. 
Naturally  enough  this  exact  pattern  of  Him  who 
taught  divinely,  taught  equality,  got  mad,  and  to 
get  square  with  those  women  sat  down  upon  the 
whole  sex.  Pathologists  profanely  assert  that 
Paul  was  an  epileptic,  and  so  account  for  his  vi- 
sions ;  but  this  does  not  explain  the  delusion  of 


1 66  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

the  people  who  take  the  apostle  at  his  own  es- 
timated value,  and  who  confuse  his  teachings 
with  those  of  Jesus  Christ.  Be  ye  followers 
of  me,  he  said,  even  as  /also  am  of  Christ ;  and  to 
the  very  letter  Saint  Paul  is  obeyed  by  the  men. 
Were  those  epistles  anywhere  except  in  the 
Bible,  had  I  met  them  in  political  economy,  I 
should  account  for  their  apparent  disorder  on 
the  ground  of  the  author's  want  of  perceptive 
power,  his  inability  to  examine  into  the  nature 
and  constitution  of  the  ideas  he  was  putting 
forth  ;  this,  together  with  unsurmounted  diffi- 
culties of  the  English  language,  would,  I  think, 
make  the  matter  plain.  As  it  is  I  confess  my 
total  inability  to  grasp  the  Christ  drift  of  his 
inspired  logic  :  Do  ye  unto  others  as  ye  would 
not  that  they  should  do  to  you.  Modesty  is 
comely.  Am  I  wrong  when  I  say  that  the 
gentle  Jesus  practiced,  sanctioned  it  ?  But 
did  delicate,  refined  emotions  stir  the  soul  of 
that  pious  anarchist,  Saint  Paul,  who  sought 
to  destroy  for  all  time  the  freedom  of  my  sex, 
sought  to  obstruct  the  expression  of  the  Christ 
principle,  natural  equal  rights  ? 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 67 

Admitted,  that  neither  in  the  existence  of 
schools,  nor  yet  in  the  teachings  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  has  the  external  reason  for  delu- 
sions, for  the  Englishman's  weak  sight,  been 
found,  then  further  search  I  realize  is  futile, 
and  turning,  pay  respectful  court  to  external 
cause's  mate.  Let  —  me — see;  to  give  the 
internal  cause  for  the  series  of  phenomena 
which  results  in  British  law  stamping  English 
male  adultery  as  a  thing  of  fine  quality,  I  find 
to  be  impossible  until  I  shall  have  had  a  season 
of  communion  with  my  higher,  my  intellectual 
self.***  From  biological  facts,  from  the  work- 
ings of  life  power,  I  draw  data  for  the  inferen- 
ces I  now  place  before  you. 

Living  matter  at  first  contained  within  its 
circle  both  of  the  sex  principles  —  sexless,  if 
you  choose  to  call  it  so  —  and  the  method  of 
reproduction  was  by  division  of  the  mass,  or 
by  the  throwing  out  from  itself  buds.  Later 
on  came  the  sexual  revolution,  divorce  was 
granted,  and  the  separation  took  place.  To 
serve  a  special  reproductive  purpose,  the  male 


1 68  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

principle  was  put  out  from  the  general  proto- 
plasmic mass.  Now  we  know  that  an  im- 
pression may  be  too  indelible  for  the  waters  of 
all  time  to  efface.  Filled  with  a  sense  of  that 
first  impulsion,  my  English  brother  feels  the 
origin  and  the  function  of  his  sex. 

Reader,  I  am  in  the  mood  to  soliloquize  ; 
would  you  avoid  a  shock,  quickly  close  the 
book,  otherwise 

Speaking  from  a  general  standpoint,  is  soci- 
ety the  better  or  the  worse  for  the  moral 
teachings  of  the  Church,  for  the  ////moral  doings 
of  our  ministers  ?  For,  to  keep  women  down 
to  church  drudgery,  to  keep  them  out  from  an 
equal  share  in  the  awful  doings  of  majestic  syn- 
ods, is  there  a  wire  too  dirty  or  too  rusty  to  be  by 
"  God's  servants  "  pulled  ?  I  think  not.  Minis- 
ters lack  knowledge  of  the  simplest  intuitive 
truths.  To  a  whole  they  do  not  know  the 
position,  the  relation,  of  its  two  halves.  Oh, 
pshaw  !  that  ear  they  keep  in  heaven  is  stone 
deaf. 

Once  there  was  a  time   when  by  the  word 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 69 

"minister"  my  thoughts  were  led  astray;  I 
believed  it  meant  a  man  divine  ;  but  by  facts  my 
mind  has  been  corrected. 

But  where  is  it,  I  wonder,  that  just  one  little 
word  does  sometimes  with  a  woman's  life  make 
sad  havoc  ?  There  are  many  stars  in  the  po- 
litico-economic sky ;  some  are  so  fixed  in  asi- 
ninity's  way  as  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  my 
critical  telescope.  Reader,  you  may  possess  a 
better  instrument  ;  try  its  powers  upon  phi- 
losophy of  wealth  and  its  near  kinsfolk.  Eco- 
nomic journals  are  plentiful,  and  the  glittering 
rot  abounds.  Is  your  leisure  small,  and  the  wish 
to  conserve  time  great  ?  Then  I  advise  selec- 
tion of  an  economic  essay  by  a  university  pro- 
fessor ;  at  once  you  are  admitted  to  a  full  view 
of  the  grotesque  and  clownish  show.  The 
authoritative  books  upon  political  economy  have 
been  written  by  men  who  were  under  the  im- 
pression that  the  object  of  professorial  effort 
was  to  divert,  amuse,  and  entertain  college  boys 
while  their  mothers  were  at  work.  Such  are 
the  pets  of  the  university.  It  makes  a  body 
think  of  poodles  and  of  doting  dowagers. 


I/O  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

"  Postulates  of  Political  Economy "  soars 
high  ;  sees  no  natural  tie  between  an  image  and 
its  reality.  Its  major  premise  is  an  assertion 
which  the  author  himself  assures  us  is  empty, 
but  under  it  he  places  minor  propositions,  social 
facts,  and  his  own  wise  conclusions,  and  of 
course  he  makes  them  fit.  To  blow  bubbles, 
little  sonny  would  at  least  put  soap  into  the 
water. 

Then  there  is  that  distinguished  thinker,  a 
mathematical  lunatic,  whom  the  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica  accredits  with  sagacity  and  ingenuity, 
fixes  him  in  literary  space  as  the  possessor  of  a 
bold  and  scientific  imagination.  By  referring 
you  to  Prof.  Jevons'  books,  I  perform  my  whole 
duty,  but  instinctive  humanity  prompts  me  to 
caution  you  against  a  shock.  His  mathematical 
prodigies  are  all  of  them  monstrosities.  The 
labor  which  brought  them  forth  was  instru- 
mental. 

"  Plutology,"  a  wonderful  mess  of  words ! 
Sometimes  in  a  name  there  is  much  misleading. 
I  thought  I  had  found  something  new,  but  no  ;  it 


AND     MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  7 1 

proved  to  be  the  same  old  story  of  the  regulars. 
Statements  are  moved  about,  some  are  brought 
to  the  front,  while  others  are  placed  in  the  back- 
ground ;  as  a  housekeeper,  by  rearranging  her 
furniture,  might  give  to  the  room  a  new  appear- 
ance. From  the  conglomerate,  where  the  author 
talks  intelligently  about  the  poor,  their  crimes, 
the  way  in  which  they  are  ill-treated,  their 
wretchedness,  their  sufferings,  their  squalor, 
and  their  helplessness,  society's  neglect,  volun- 
tary idleness  and  inability  to  get  work,  their  woes 
and  their  wrongs,  I  selected  this  very  funny 
thing,  which  looks  to  me  as  if  it  were  intended 
for  a  covert  or  half  attack  upon  the  good  old 
Queen.  The  argument  was  that  when  she  gave 
her  wealthy  children  bread  she  ought  to  be 
allowed  to  give  something  to  her  needy  offspring. 
Rambling  in  the  woods,  when  a  little  girl,  I  got 
lost,  turned  completely  round,  and  started  for 
home  in  the  wrong  direction.  Do,  please,  wont 
some  one  fit  out  an  expedition  and  rescue  that 
man  Hearn  ?  "  Let  us  assume"  that  he  is  not 
a  learned  professor,  only  an  empty  LL.D. 


172  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

As  to  the  book  of  M.  Bastiat,  his  work  from 
beginning  unto  end  is  one  prolonged  hysterical 
yell :  My  property,  right  or  wrong !  my 
property ! 

Before  directing  my  telescope  to  the  luminous 
body  I  have  now  in  mental  view,  I  must,  as  a 
careful  physician,  request  that  you  will,  by  veils 
or  bits  of  colored  glass,  protect  the  sight. 
William  Senior,  of  Oxford  University,  was  much 
hampered  by  the  paucity  of  the  English  language, 
bitterly  complained  of  political  economy's  de- 
fective nomenclature,  while  giving  to  his  readers 
ample  opportunity  to  deplore  his  defective  use 
of  the  same ;  words,  words,  words.  This  pro- 
fessor was  full  to  the  brim  of  them — word 
obesity.  His  case  is  about  the  worst  unre- 
corded. Had  I  been  called  to  him,  I  should  have 
put  that  mouth  in  plaster,  should  have  reduced 
him  to  the  practice  of  mere  gesture,  and  think 
I  might  have  worked  a  partial  cure.  The  Eng- 
lish peasant,  it  is  said,  commands  a  regiment  of 
only  about  five  hundred  words  ;  had  he  taken 
the  science  of  political  economy  out  of  the  mouths 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 73 

of  university    professors,    what  needless  word- 
slaughter  had  been  saved  ! 

Prof.  Senior,  in  dealing  with  productive  and 
unproductive  consumption,  makes  things  plain  ; 
informs  us  that  the  third  footman  to  an  English 
carriage  may  or  may  not  be,  on  the  part  of  the 
owner  of  the  equipage,  a  piece  of  unproductive 
consumption.  Which  it  is  depends  upon  some- 
thing of  which  Prof.  Senior  is  not  sure  ;  but  he 
was  certain  that  what  the  footman  consumed 
was  not  bread  and  butter,  but  was  his  wages. 
Aged  folks,  this  learned  man  found,  from  the 
standpoint  of  his  great  science,  to  be  permanently 
unproductive,  but  of  the  infant's  future  useful- 
ness he  had  permanent  hopes.  By  careful 
searching  this  political  economist  discovered  this 
alarming  fact,  that  the  number  of  absolutely 
productive  consumers  was  decreasing,  as  de- 
creased the  social  black  spot,  chattel  slavery. 
Prof.  Senior  thought  it  probable  that  in  time 
the  sole  cause  for  consumption  of  food  will  be 
hunger  and  the  body's  demands,  and  that  no  one 
will  eat  just  on  purpose  to  satisfy  the  commands 
of  a  legal  owner. 


174  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Profoundly  impressed  is  this  erudite  by  the 
real  defect  in  a  sale,  say,  of  an  English  mansion. 
Long  past  pleasurable  emotions  of  an  owner 
do  not  accompany,  do  not  make  a  part  of  the 
transfer.  But  suppose  the  seller  a  melancholic, 
would  the  buyer  be  the  gainer  or  the  loser 
by  this  ethereal  defect  in  the  transfer  ?  His 
keen  perceptives  enabled  him  to  readily  grasp 
long  past  situations  ;  he  avers  that  at  first  there 
were  only  rent  and  wages  ;  later  on,  with  civiliza- 
tion, came  profits.  The  fairy  which  worked  a 
miracle,  transformed  a  little  star,  twinkling  in 
the  darkness  of  a  far-off  institution,  into  a  lumi- 
nous body,  was  the  theory  of  abstinence. 

This  theory,  like  much  that  political  econo- 
mists cast  off,  may  be  set  down  as  due  to  the 
whirl  of  two  fiery  opposing  mental  currents. 
Society  being  divided  into  controllers  of  and 
beggars  for  opportunity  to  work  and  live, 
profits  take  the  wrong  direction,  do  not  get 
home.  But  an  economic  prestidigitator  writes 
a  treatise  and  by  assertion  proves  that  right  is 
wrong,  and  wrong  is  right,  and  as  a  result  socio- 
economic blackness  is  turned  white. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  75 

As  wages  are  the  due  reward  of  labor,  so 
profits,  which  the  plutocrat  receives,  are 
merely  proportionate  to  sufferings  entailed  by 
abstinence,  says  Prof.  Senior.  Now,  where  is 
the  fancy  that  can  paint  the  terrific  soul  leaps, 
agonizing  pains,  horrible  sensations,  which  make 
good  the  title  of  our  entrepreneurs  and  our 
bankers  to  all  that  in  the  form  of  profits  they 
get.  As  with  revelation  I  fear  to  "monkey," 
I  think  it  best  to  take  up  bodily  and  transfer 
this  author's  own  words.  Abstinence  is  real- 
ized instantly  in  the  conduct  of  a  man  who 
allows  a  tree  to  grow  or  a  domestic  animal  to 
come  to  maturity.  Dear,  clear,  what  a  pity! 
Had  he  added,  "  and  permits  his  wife  to  stand 
up  straight,"  the  world  would  have  had  a  finished 
picture  of  Professor  Senior's  complete  asininity. 

I  own  to  seeing  much  of  the  animal  in  men, 
but  "  'pon  my  soul  "  I  have  yet  lengths  to  run 
if  I  catch  up  with  William  Senior's  slander. 
Among  the  men  I  have  friends ;  man  is  not  a 
mad  bull ;  I  deny  it.  Still,  I  own  that  he  is  the 
child  of  his  adopted  father.      Especially  realiz- 


176  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

ing  exactness  of  nomenclature  and  strict  accu- 
racy in  deduction,  his  new  term  "abstinence," 
though  useful,  was  not  appropriate;  his  treatise 
is  of  a  high  order.  So  says  the  jargon  of  that 
article  on  political  economy  in  the  Encyclopae- 
dia Britannica. 

I  have  an  incident  to  relate  before  proceed- 
ing to  the  classification  of  political  economists. 
One  evening  in  Philadelphia,  at  the  close  of  a 
discourse,  questions  to  the  donor  of  the  intel- 
lectual manna  were  proposed  ;  this  was  usual  in 
the  university  extension  course.  It  had  been 
claimed  that  what  was  wanted  to  smoothe  the 
social  waters,  make  our  crafts  skim  along  easily, 
was  simply  intelligence  in  the  laborer.  Dis- 
turbing elements  abound  ;  need  I  remind  you 
that  anarchists,  socialists,  and  single-taxers 
are  on  hand  wanting  to  get  at  truth,  wishing 
to  see  things  righted,  popping  up  on  occa- 
sions when  not  wanted.  This  time  it  was  a 
socialist.  As  a  babe  longs  for  milk,  so  longed 
she  for  knowledge ;  therefore  to  that  professor 
she  meekly  put  this  question  : 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 77 

"  With  a  definition  of  intelligence  will  you 
oblige  us,  please  ?" 

"Intelligence,  intelligence,"  he  said,  and 
there  were  signs  of  wildness  in  his  manner, 
— "why,  madam,  intelligence  is  intelligence." 

But,  unsatisfied,  she  persisted  in  question- 
ing, insisting  on  his  going  into  the  matter 
deeper.  (Professors  should  use  caution  against 
the  bombs  of  bloody  socialists,  be  protected, 
armored  by  the  power  to  answer  simple  ques- 
tions put.)  An  awful  retribution  came  nigh 
being  hers,  that  of  sending  forth  a  spirit  unpre- 
pared. I  was  present,  saw  the  question's  toxic 
effect,  and  knew  the  imminent  danger.  With 
Christian  Science  methods  at  once  I  came  to 
the  rescue.  "  There  is  no  death,  there  is  no 
death,  there  is  no  death,"  with  fearful  energy 
mentally  I  shouted,  and  was  rewarded  by  see- 
ing slow  return  into  that  face  a  look,  which, 
through  the  paucity  to  which  I  have  referred, 
I  am  compelled  to  call  intelligence ;  and  he 
survived. 

I    have    waited,    and    have    looked    for    the 


178  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

notice  of  a  university  raffle,  but  no,  the  Qua- 
ker City  is  still  illumined.  Now,  were  my 
opinion  asked  as  to  his  natural  location,  from 
recent  revelations  I  should  without  hesitation 
say,  the  University  of  Chicago.  What  a  tan- 
dem team  that  institution  would  possess  ! 
Prof.  Batting  does  not  know  what  intelligence 
is,  and  Prof.  Harper  does  not  know  that  intelli- 
gence is  to  be  tiscd. 

To  possess  diamonds  or  pearls  some  one  must 
dig  or  dive ;  motions  to  discover,  to  own  the 
truth  are  similar.      In  form  and  figure  mythe- 

makers  are  men,  but  in   mind  they  are 

However,  yourself  can  judge.  The  earth  ;  upon 
it  a  mass  of  protoplasm.  The  time,  ah,  well ! 
I  do  not  know  it.  Would  that  I  were  clairvoy- 
ant. And  now  begins  life's  journey  upon  this 
planet.  Encircled  within  that  living  mass  lies 
Om,  the  life  power.  Alive  and  beckoning  are 
possibilities,  but  sleeping  are  the  powers  ;  they 
by  external  forces  must  be  awakened,  called 
forth  into  the  tree  of  manifested  life,  whose 
parts     are    sub-human,     human,    and     divine. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  79 

Bear  in  mind  that  the  topmost  bough,  the 
uttermost  leaf,  are,  through  the  trunk  and 
root,  connected  with  all  the  rest.  Vast  is  the 
wealth  of  this  rich  matter  ;  the  poverty  of  my 
perception  is  to  be  made  plain. 

To  philosophize,  conceivable  data  must  be 
assumed.  Scientists  hypothesize  an  ether.  In 
thought  let  us  try  to  picture  the  fact  of  an 
unknowable,  undifferentiated  mass,  a  universal 
sea  of  consciousness  (feeling)  ;  the  Omnipotent, 
all  one  thing,  everywhere  waiting  to  be  built 
up  into  mental  states  ;  and  to  the  general  con- 
sciousness we  must  trace  the  relationing  by 
the  mental  principle  of  its  coexistent  sum,  the 
environment.  The  evolution  of  protoplasm 
and  the  maintenance  of  forms  depend  upon  the 
reciprocal  action  of  two  sets  of  motion  whose 
points  of  initiation  are  opposite  in  direction,  are 
without  and  within. 

I  am  not  considering  the  term  direction  as 
for  convenience  used,  but  am  dealing  with  di- 
rection in  its  connection  with  the  unfoldment  of 
a  mass  of  living  matter,  which  to  this  earth  is 
relationed. 


I  SO  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTIIES 

Thus  considered,  motions  initiated  by  the 
environment  have  for  their  field  of  operation  the 
inside  of  that  living  mass  ;  but  motions  initiated 
by  the  powers  within  the  living  substance,  take, 
through  reaction's  course,  an  opposite  direction, 
proceeding  to  the  outside. 

Rear  in  mind  that,  at  present,  I  am  con- 
sidering protoplasm  in  its  early  progress  of 
unfoldment,  have  not  come  to  where  the  road 
forked,  where  evolution  was  aided  by  thought 
consciously  initiated. 

The  northward  movement  is  a  motion  of 
the  protoplasmic  self,  its  upliftment  into  forms, 
which  was  a  result  of  the  harmonious  combina- 
tion of  these  two  sets  of  motion,  whose  initia- 
tive points,  though  opposite  in  direction,  are 
interdependent.  That  mass  of  protoplasm 
knew  at  first  but  a  solitary  feeling,  hunger; 
other  feelings,  knowledge,  came  through  an  ac- 
quaintance with  the  environment  ;  pressure  gave 
the  introduction  ;  a  pebble  or  some  tiny  thing 
dealt  idiotic  individualism  its  first  blow. 

In  the  perception  of  something  outside  of  self 


AND    MYTIIE-MAKERS.  I  S  I 

the  mind  had  its  gray  dawn,  had  the  nucleus  of 
its  germinal  beginning  ;  and  as  mental  states  grew 
in  number,  in  substance,  and  in  form,  into  exist- 
ence there  came  new  and  newer  forms  of  mani- 
festation. Now,  where  is  the  power  that  can 
magnify  the  results  of  co-operation,  of  friendly 
relations  ?  Until  a  creation  had  been  wrought, 
protoplasm  could  not  move  except  as  it  was  acted 
upon  by  something  outside  of  itself.  Basely 
born,  educed  by  gross  matter,  that  mental  state, 
the  first  on  earth,  stood  within  the  living  mass 
alone.  To  move  protoplasm  it  was  helpless,  for 
it  was  but  a  half.  Everything  in  nature  has  its 
unseen  counterpart,  its  spiritual  portion.  The 
cry  for  help  was  heard,  and  on  the  wings  of 
echo,  from  out  of  general  consciousness,  came 
its  mate  ;  and  by  an  immaculate  conception  that 
first  mental  state  was  made  whole  ;  by  a  miracle 
was  started  the  living  individual  soul,  the  home 
of  all  emotions,  all  impulses.  The  environment 
being  large,  great  was  the  need  of  education ; 
trained  assistants  came  —  the  senses — brought 
by  repetitive  effort. 


I  82  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Nature  knows  no  mistakes,  admits  no  failures. 
In  time  all  motions,  experiences,  take  some 
ultimate  good  form.  Within  the  mental  aggre- 
gate the  will  is  born,  a  mental  entity,  and  itself 
becomes  an  individual  part,  helping  to  make  up 
the  body  of  the  mind.  As  an  existence  the  will 
is  freed  from  dependency  upon  the  immediate 
action  of  external  forces  upon  sentient  matter 
to  call  it  up.  It  is  in  this  sense  that  the  will  is 
free.  But  for  opportunity  to  move  the  machinery 
of  its  operations,  the  body,  the  will,  though  self- 
existent,  is  still  dependent  upon  the  environ- 
ment. Chain  a  dog,  and  for  what  movements 
are  its  legs  free  ?  Freedom's  lever  has  two 
ends  ;  opportunities  must  be  unchained.  That 
mass  of  protoplasm  which  had  strayed  from  out 
of  space,  landing  on  the  earth,  held,  with  will 
in  its  possession,  an  earnest  of  its  homeward 
motion. 

But  the  mental  embryo,  though  viable,  was 
not  yet  ready  to  be  born  an  infant  mind.  The 
nucleus  of  something  more  was  needed,  the  germ 
of  the  moral  self.      Behold  the  mother  thought 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 83 

and  friendship  true  in  our  friends,  the  quadru- 
peds. The  principle  of  sympathy  works  sub- 
limely ;  by  its  help  base-born  mental  states 
become  the  substance  of  the  soul. 

I  ne'er  dispute  that  man  images  his  gross 
maker,  but  most  emphatically  I  do  deny  that 
we  have  yet  attained  unto  the  image  of  our 
Divine  Creator.  To  become  this,  man  himself 
has  work  to  do. 

The  meaning  of  life-work  ?  Well,  I  take  it  to 
be  this :  nothing  other  than  the  building  up  of 
feelings  out  of  knowledge,  out  of  perceptions  of 
motions  that  are  started  by  what  is  within  and 
by  what  is  without.  The  meaning  of  life-work 
— is  it  less  sublime  than  this  :  the  precipitation 
of  states  of  feeling,  of  emotions,  into  individual 
soul  and  body  ? 

The  vibrations  of  etymology  tell  the  story  ; 
they  help  to  make  it  plain.  Language  had  its 
mound-builders,  and  their  instinctive  realization 
of  the  true  relation  between  ideas  and  their 
verbal  forms  is  just  amazing. 

The    power    within,  which    co-operates  with 


184  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

external  forces  to  mould  protoplasm  into  dif- 
ferent forms,  is  the  mental  principle.  And  what 
a  worker  !  Immediate  perception  of  like  points, 
of  things,  of  their  meanings  and  relations,  con- 
clusions come  by  a  process  of  spontaneous 
generation.  Judgments  of  the  mind  take  form. 
Into  the  mental  country  immigrants  are  con- 
stantly coming ;  some  hail  from  the  realm  of 
thought,  are  refined  ;  others  are  gross,  they 
image  sensations.  Still,  there  is  no  discrimina- 
tion against  them  as  to  the  rights  of  citizen- 
ship in  the  mental  country.  All  are  admitted 
on  equal  terms.  The  principle  of  the  mind  is, 
as  you  know,  not  a  brute. 

Threefold  is  the  general  work  of  the  mental 
community,  for  not  alone  new  entities  are  added, 
but  the  process  of  destruction  is  carried  on.  An 
anarchistic  duty  is  constantly,  quietly,  performed 
through  evolution's  work ;  old  conditions  are 
broken  up  and  old  states  are  transformed,  are 
adapted  to  new  forces  ;  hence  there  are  peace 
and  harmony  in  that  complex  society  which  we 
call  the  mind. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  85 

Note  the  limitations.  This  affirmation  is 
only  true  of  the  mind  as  an  existence,  a  whole 
composed  of  differentiated,  of  individual  parts  ; 
it  is  not  applicable  to  the  mind's  mortal  mani- 
festation. Here  confusion  and  disorder  may  and 
do  arise.  When  traced,  invariably  is  it  found 
to  be  due  to  interference  with  the  rights  of,  to 
wrongs  perpetrated  upon,  the  mind's  materializ- 
ing medium,  the  brain.  Of  the  body's  parts, 
nerve  substance  is  the  nearest  to  life  power. 
Look  in  upon  the  medium,  something  you  may 
learn  of  the  greatness  of  the  unseen  work ; 
though  not  much,  I  own,  for  nature  in  her  gen- 
erative work  is  silent,  is  secret.  Would  you 
really  learn,  then,  the  harmonious  relations  of 
the  brain  mass  must  not  be  broken  by  rude, 
impertinent  intrusion,  by  coarse  acts  ;  deathly 
quiet  should  invite  the  looker-in. 

To  compare  cerebral  masses  is  instructive,  and 
so,  beside  the  brain  of  an  Aryan  woman  place 
that  of  an  elephant.  The  soul's  sense  of  sub- 
limity is  awakened  by  the  differences  perceived  ; 
condensation  of  the  mass,  smaller  size,  superior 


I  86  SOCIOECONOMIC    MYTHES 

quality.  That  refinement  was  effected  through 
intellectual  thought's  transformatory  power. 
While  nature  had  on  hand  this  work,  to  build 
up  a  brain,  an  animal,  prior  to  the  job's  com- 
pletion, might  lawfully  claim  that  larger  size, 
greater  brain  weight,  were  evidence,  de  facto, 
of  his  superiority.  But  the  finished  product 
upon  life's  market,  then  the  all-important  work 
of  transformation  begins,  then  the  main  business 
is  to  give  to  that  brain  a  good  character. 

The  movement  in  textile  manufacture  exem- 
plifies this  fact.  Though  by  stupendous  effort 
the  first  woven  fabric  was  produced,  yet  since 
that  marriage  of  intelligence  to  art,  what  has 
been  the  direction  of  the  manufacturing  march  ? 
Why,  from  bulk  and  coarseness  to  smaller  size 
and  fineness.  It  is  a  question  of  quality  ;  note 
the  delicacy  of  gossamer. 

Brutal  muscles  call  for  bulky  brains  ;  natural 
selection  is  at  work,  and  great  brain  weight 
responds  to  brutal  thought.  To  review,  first, 
the  perception  of  things,  then  the  perception  of 
the  relation  of  things  to  self  —  what  as  to  pain- 


AND    MYTHEtMAKERS.  1 87 

inflicting  was  to  be  avoided,  and  what  as  food 
was  to  be  sought.  Later  comes  the  perception 
of  relation  between  things ;  reasoning  power 
begins  its  work.  Still  the  intellect  is  animal. 
To  dig  up  causes  by  the  root,  their  separate 
force  to  discover  by  their  separate  position, 
primary  and  secondary,  and  by  discrimination 
to  relation  them  to  effects,  is  man's  prerogative, 
is  his  moral  duty.  Man's  is  the  work  to  search 
for  meanings,  the  "why"  and  the  "wherefore," 
and  by  noble  discontent  moved,  rest  not  satis- 
fied until  the  knowable  is  found  and  expressed. 
Is  a  mind's  work  less  than  this,  then  is  that 
mind  sub-human.  Animals  know  much,  have 
learned  it  by  experience,  still  they  take  things 
for  granted,  and  they  judge  from  appearances ; 
the  animal  mind  cannot  do  otherwise. 

Political  economists  perceive  socio-economic 
institutions,  but  do  not  trace  their  origin  to  real 
first  causes  ;  they  judge  from  appearances  and 
treat  landlordism,  capitalism,  as  natural  to  human 
society. 

In  my  classification  of  political  economists  I 


1 88  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

am  not  alone ;  I  can  quote  authority.  See 
"  The  Industrial  Revolution,"  by  the  late  Arnold 
Toynbee ;  note  his  separation  of  them  from 
human  folks  —  "  the  bitter  argument  between 
economists  and  human  beings  has  ended,"  etc. 

Variously  may  causes  be  classified  :  those  in 
space  into  internal  and  external ;  those  in  time 
into  primary  and  secondary.  But  according  to 
their  character  causes  are  classified  into  general 
and  particular.  While  the  general  cause  for 
this  peculiar  race  is  to  be  found  in  the  confusion 
of  our  socio-economic  state,  the  particular  cause 
is  chargeable  to  universities,  our  intellectual 
junk  shops. 

Therefore  I  call  upon  the  women  of  all  lands 
to  come  forward  and  do  a  great  work.  By  argu- 
ments which  must  take  the  dullest  brains,  im- 
portune the  government  to  take  possession  of 
these  institutions  by  the  right  of  eminent  domain, 
and  under  the  superintendence  of  an  energetic 
woman,  one  well  versed  in  kindergarten  methods, 
conduct  their  future  work.  By  this  means  a 
needed  revolution    will    be  peaceably  secured ; 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 89 

less  professors,  less  fool  talk.  Spare  no  effort, 
see  to  it  the  work  is  thorough  ;  but  women,  "  for 
God's  sake  "  teach  those  learned  men  the  mean- 
ing of  the  simplest  words. 

What  ho  !  ye  discontented  laborers,  gods  of 
society,  what  is  it  at  our  hands  ye  ask  ?  Mine 
ears  do  hear  "the  jargon,  natural  rights,"  equal 
opportunity  to  possess,  to  enjoy  the  things  your- 
selves produce.  Spake  I  unto  you  as  unto 
laborers,  this  would  I  say  :  Know  you  not  that 
selfishness  is  shocking  ?  From  example  take  a 
lesson,  live  at  the  expense  of  others,  be  pluto- 
crats. But  interpreting  our  socio-economic 
state,  I  speak  to  you  as  unto  gods  of  society. 
I  am  not  a  scoffer  ;  we  are  optimistic,  in  the 
fullness  of  your  powers  have  confidence.  We 
are  lovers  of  consistency,  and  would,  in  all  things, 
as  becometh  deities  have  you  to  act ;  live  upon 
nothing,  enjoy  nothing,  but  for  your  dependent, 
society,  create  everything.  One  thing  alone  you 
lack,  character ;  take  heed,  build  up  character. 
Hearken  to  capitalistic  warning :  Go  to ;  the 
right  of  conspiracy  belongs  to  us  and  not  to  you. 


I9O  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Myself  thinks  that  even  gods  have  rights, 
therefore  it  is  with  reluctance  I  own  that  grave 
charges  against  you  are  preferred,  a  few  of 
which,  just  to  make  myself  solid  with  your  adver- 
sary, I  will  name.  You  are  arraigned  by  the 
great,  by  the  greatest  of  great  folks,  by  political 
economists.  The  misdemeanor  charged,  you 
create  no  matter,  but  instead  you  prostitute 
your  powers,  and  you  spend  our  time  in  the  pro- 
duction of  mere  trifles,  utility  and  form.  I  desire 
in  all  things  to  keep  steady,  to  retain  firm  grasp 
upon  "the  straight  line,"  but  this  unexpected, 
this  astounding  disclosure,  wa"s  for  my  nerves 
too  much  ;  from  centre  to  circumference  my 
mind  by  it  was  shook. 

Would  you  cause  a  fellow-creature's  disinte- 
gration, cause  my  return  to  nebulosity,  then 
continue  on  in  this  blunder,  continue  this 
omission. 

Against  your  class  the  list  is  very,  very  long ; 
and  life,  you  know,  is  short — but  three  score 
years  and  ten.  Did  I  attempt  to  give  it  all,  I 
should  at  last  be  found   unprepared   to    meet 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  191 

death's  call.      I  will  be  wise,  I  will  curtail,  from 
scientific  art  take  a  lesson. 

The  charge  selected  is,  of  all  the  rest,  a  com- 
posite ;  in  it  the  Christ-like  feature  of  your  rev- 
erend friend  is  recognizable.  He  differed  from 
Ricardo ;  declared  that  capital  could  become 
redundant.  With  this  reverend  sir,  to  open 
mouth  and  to  prove  statements  was  a  simul- 
taneous and  a  wonderful  performance.  "The 
distinguished  thinker,"  as  heretofore,  makes 
good,  by  the  plausiblest  reasons,  his  new  claim. 
The  walk  of  capital,  he  urges,  is  steady,  and 
steady  its  increase.  The  social  waters  are,  by 
him,  admitted  to  move ;  we  are  told  of  an  occa- 
sional ripple,  of  a  fresh  call  for  new  laborers, 
and,  alack !  the  labor  market  being  under  supplied, 
sixteen  or  eighteen  years  elapse  before  the  cap- 
italistic call  is  answered,  before  the  plutocratic 
demand  is  fulfilled.  Capital  all  this  time  is  in- 
creasing ;  having  no  vent  it  is  dammed  up. 
Meantime,  until  the  demand  for  fresh  human 
hands  is  overtaken,  accomodating  witches  manu- 
facture goods  and    chattels,  they  produce  the 


192  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

redundant  capital.  Sixteen  or  eighteen  years 
before  the  scarcity  of  the  labor  market  is  cor- 
rected, and  all  this  time,  upon  the  "ragged 
edge  "  of  suspensive  wait,  capitalists  are  kept  by 
the  tardiness  of  a  class  convicted  of  redundant 
reproductive  powers. 

The  case  against  you  "  pans  out  "  bad  ;  I  own 
it,  and  as  a  friend  of  the  gods  I  should  not  like 
to  see  this  matter  fall  into  the  hands  of  "able 
lawyers;"  consequences  unprecedented  would 
arise.  Malleability  is  a  property  of  "  cases," 
and  judicial  patience  is  a  magnitude.  Through 
tiers  of  courts  it  would  be  took,  but  without  a 
"precedent,"  without  an  anchor,  judicial  labor 
would  in  the  end  prove  itself  dimensionless 
space. 

The  Rev.  T.  R.  Malthus  included  in  the 
lapse  of  time  between  response  and  the  capital- 
istic call  (bring  on  fresh  human  "  hinds ") 
the  period  of  their  gestation.  I  am  sure  he 
did ;  still  on  so  grave  a  matter  I  am  loth  to 
have  the  reader  think  I  may  have  erred. 
Malthusian  gospel  is  economic  authority,   "  and 


AND     MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 93 

so  it  please  you  "  look  it  up,  get  at  the  awful 
truth.  Gods  slighted  money's  call,  were  years 
in  bringing  angels  into  the  labor  market.  In 
the  affairs  of  laboring  men  "there  is  a  tide, 
which,  taken  at  the  flood,"  etc.,  etc.,  ad  infini- 
tum. In  its  special  application  it  doth  appear 
to  me  that  the  mind  of  our  economic  expert, 
"  vicegerent  "  Malthus,  was  by  divinity  poten- 
tized  until  was  reached  that  point  in  high  atten- 
uation's process  where  supervenes  etherealiza- 
tion,  hence  Malthusian  thought  went  careering 
up  and  down,  shot  in  all  directions  at  one  and 
the  same  time ;  and  hence  an  exhibit  of  unified 
disorder  in  his  ideas. 

I  more  than  half  suspect  that  the  string 
which,  for  a  time,  tethered  that  spiritual  be- 
ing to  our  coarse  earth,  was  his  ministerial 
mission,  was  his  special  adaptation  for  the 
work  of  saving  souls.  As  already  hinted,  the 
demand  by  you  laborers  for  opportunities  is 
deemed  by  us  unworthy  your  high  vocation. 
Examine  great  society's  seal,  see  the  stamp 
it  makes.  In  the  social  adjustment  affair 
hew-man's  head  does  not  work. 


194  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MVTHES 

To  move  the  human  heart  your  claim  is  an 
insufficient  cause.  Furthermore,  to  your  god- 
like jealousy  we  humans  take  exception.  To 
aid  comprehension  of  the  present  state  of  so- 
cio-economic affairs,  be  pleased  to  note  the 
wholly  materialistic  character  of  the  Christian 
conception.  God  resides  not  within  the  self, 
but  outside;  is  it  wonder  then  that  King 
Money's  men  strive  for  themselves  to  corner 
the  spot  where  their  divinity  abides  ?  And 
furthermore,  I  would  have  you  note  that 
God  Himself  has  to  seize  the  opportunity, 
has  to  hew  His  way. 

Our  time  on  earth  being  limited,  we  attend 
not  to  frivolous  affairs  ;  business  presses  ;  the 
claims  of  God's  mortal  adversary  must,  you 
know,  be  allowed.  Accordingly  society's  gods 
have  their  wrongs,  and  were  they  compiled,  put 
into  historic  form,  the  stench  would  burst  a  vel- 
lum cover.  In  union  there  is  strength.  Look 
upon  the  living  body,  see  equality  in  opportu- 
nity ;  in  the  co-relation  of  its  different  parts  be- 
hold  omniscience,  each  for  all,  and  all  for  each. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 95 

Friends,  kinsfolk,  society  :  by  permission  of 
the  principle  of  right  I  come  to  speak ;  at  your 
feet  I  come  to  lay  not  Caesar's  wounded  corse, 
but  a  living,  bleeding  cause.  The  "noble" 
capitalist  tells  you  that  the  laborer  is  redundant ; 
it  is  a  "grievous  fault  ;  "  but  methinks  the  la- 
borer is  society's  true  and  faithful  friend.  Has 
judgment  "fled  to  brutish  beasts?"  Has  so- 
ciety lost  its  wits  ?  "  Bear  with  me,  my  heart 
is  in  the"  cause.  I  would  not  do  the  "noble  " 
capitalist  a  wrong  ;  he  is  an  "  honorable  man." 
Better,  far  better,  to  wrong  a  righteous 
cause,  myself,  and  you,  society,  than  to  wrong 
the  "  honorable  "  poacher  of  his  brethren's  op- 
portunities. With  proper  reverence  for  the 
gods  of  society  were  your  hearts  and  minds 
disposed,  then  against  dishonorable  social  con- 
ditions there  would  be  universal  rage  and 
mutiny,  and  you  would  do  the  millionaire- 
opportunity  a  wrong. 

Better  would  it  be  to  let  the  cause  of  right 
suffer.  The  "  noble  "  capitalist  hath  told  you 
that    to    the    laborer  he  acts  as  better  half,   as 


196  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

guardian  angel,  spiritual  wife.  Come,  judge  of 
heart-throbs  for  his  beloved ;  listen  to  the  capi- 
talistic refrain:  "Whene'er  I  take  my  walks 
aboad,"  how  many  poor  I  see  ;  "  what  shall  I  ren- 
der to  "  my  MoNEY-god  for  all  its  "gifts  to  me  ? " 
And  now  watch  the  exhibition  of  capitalistic  love. 
A  wolf  and  a  sheep  in  close  proximity  together 
stand.  Of  individuals  there  are  at  present  two  ; 
but  the  wolf  loves  the  sheep,  would  him  enfold, 
would  him  shelter,  would,  in  short,  with  him 
make  but  one.  Moved  by  this  paternal  feeling, 
forward  with  open  jaws  upon  the  helpless  sheep 
he  leaps,  simply  performs  the  common  socialis- 
tic feat  ;  and  now  of  individuals  there  is  but 
one. 

Friends,  kinsfolk,  society,  hearken  not  to  the 
wisdomless  science,  political  economy ;  by  its 
folly  have  your  heads  been  turned.  Its  fathers, 
seized  by  a  sub-human  spirit,  prophecied  that  to 
increase  wages  were  of  no  avail ;  laborers  would 
not  hoard,  but  would  squander  the  golden  gift, 
like  as  not  upon  more  tables  and  chairs.  In  la- 
boring folks  this  is  a  heinous  sin.       But    then, 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  1 97 

society,  reflect,  be  merciful  ;  it  is  barely  possi- 
ble that  a  laborer  stood  in  need  of  an  extra  ta- 
ble, and  mayhap  one  more  chair  ;  maybe  he  had 
a  guest ;  maybe  he  entertained  an  angel  un- 
aware. The  gentlemanly  capitalist  doth  tell 
thee,  O  society,  that  the  laborer  is  coarse,  ill- 
bred,  is  unrefined  ;  and  relevant  testimony  is 
overwhelmning ;  verdict  is  found.  The  work- 
ingman  cuts  not  aesthetic  capers  ;  he  is  con- 
victed. But  stay,  withhold  thy  judgment,  O 
society  ;  the  power  to  move  thy  stony  heart  may 
yet  be  mine.  Reflect :  from  out  the  inferior 
ranks  the  aesthetic  star  has  not  yet  risen.  Con- 
sider :  for  phosphorescent  light  the  laborer  is 
doomed  to  dependence  upon  the  shooting  of  a 
comet  across  his  firmament ;  doomed  to  depend- 
ence upon  a  wandering  apostle  from  out  of  ours, 
the  superior  ranks. 

Friends,  kinsfolk,  society,  "lend  me  your 
ears."  Behold  the  laborer's  holographic  testa- 
ment, his  will  and  willingness  to  do  for  his  de- 
pendent, You  ;  and  then  behold  his  hampered 
opportunities.      Methinks    it    is  as    if   the  rar- 


I98  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

est  jewel,  the  diamond's  brilliant,  sparkling  hue, 
round  about  were  set  with  pitchy  blackness. 
What  does  the  laborer  do  for  society  ?  Every- 
thing ;  all.  And,  I  ask,  can  aught  be  more  des- 
picable than  taking  favors,  and  for  them  making 
no  return  ?  I  trow  not.  What  can  society  do 
for  the  laborer  ?  Much.  Unclasp  the  exploit- 
ing hand.  It  is  upon  his  throat.  Abolish  the 
economic  tenet,  Your  necessity  is  my  opportu- 
nity. Of  vain  pretensions  I  am  a  scoffer.  Has 
society  an  intellect  ?  Use  it ;  despise  the  need- 
less. Look,  perceive  the  truth  of  socio-economic 
truths.  Society,  for  enforced  helplessness  I 
thee  arraign.  From  out  God-space  the  infant 
comes  upon  this  earth,  comes  to  unfold  princi- 
ples and  powers,  comes  to  set  knowledge  in  mo- 
tion. I  demand  to  know  why,  if  born  without 
the  golden  ticket-of-leave,  one  heavenly  waif 
should,  by  thee,  be  left  to  starve,  left  to 
freeze.  And  the  aged  helpless,  they  who  have 
borne  the  brunt  of  battle  in  past  days,  and  with 
tottering  steps  approach  the  river's  brink,  I  de- 
mand to  know  by  what  ratio,  by  what  rule  of 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  I  99 

three,  thou,  society,  dost  justify  the  cause  of 
their  needless  tortures.  Socio-economic  con- 
ditions ?  This  thy  plea  ?  For  sub-humans 
such  would  do,  but  where  there  is  head  and 
heart,  for  thee,  O  society,  it  is  inadequate,  it 
cannot  bail  thee  out. 

The  youth  through  whose  childish  day- 
dreams flitted  fairy  thoughts  of  future  possi- 
bilities of  future  doings,  wonders  ;  upon  the 
threshold  of  manhood's  morning  see  him  all 
alive  with  glad  courage,  with  great  hope.  Why, 
his  very  soul  feels  too  big  for  his  mortal  body ; 
pitiful  the  thought,  he  finds  not  a  thing  to  do 
that  suits.  Pursued,  opportunities  flee  like 
the  mirage,  and  he  is  tripped,  finds  himself 
ensnared.  Society,  hast  thou  a  heart  of  steel  ? 
Even  then  feel  this  tragedy  of  transformation. 
The  buoyant  youth  developed  into  a  disap- 
pointed, discouraged,  heartbroken  man,  with- 
out hope  ;  mechanically  he  toils  on  ;  wife  and 
babes  from  worser  fate  must  be  saved,  if 
possible.      Opportunities  are  tied  up. 

Society,   earth's    omnipotent    one,   untie  the 


200  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Gordian  knot,  prevent  the  cut,  arrest  the  fall- 
ing sword.  Wicked  society,  deaf  to  the  cry 
of  thy  helpless  children,  repent,  turn  from 
thy  paramour,  man-thought ;  break  from  its  con- 
trol. To  the  principle  of  right  flee,  and  to 
the  principle  of  sympathy  be  wedded. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  201 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SOCIAL    LAW    THE    ECONOMIC    LAW. 

LYING  within  the  arms  of  time,  the 
mental  principle  moves,  forward  ;  its  un- 
foldment  is  onward  in  a  straight  line.  In 
space  things  are  positioned  to  it  transversely ; 
theirs  is  an  outward,  is  a  broadening  motion, 
and  if  progressive  evolution  be  obeyed,  then  at 
the  point  where  meets  the  mental  and  the  line 
of  social  transposition,  a  right  angle  is  made ; 
but  does  obtuseness  interfere,  reaction  then 
must  work,  must  make  that  angle  a  right 
one. 

That  first  protoplasm  at  first  moves  only 
as  it  is  moved  by  wind  and  wave ;  later,  when 
internal  forces  have  been  wakened,  see  that 
creeping  thing  a  worm  ;  conscious  of  environ- 
ment it  moves  intelligently,  and  we  find,  later 
on,  time's    motion  symbolized  by  a    spine,  and 


202  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

stability  is  given  to  that  protoplasm.  Fishes, 
with  one  exception,  have  a  head  and  heart  ;  the 
lancelet  has  neither. 

Note  the  combination,  my  plutocratic  broth- 
er ;  head  and  heart,  you  see,  belong  to- 
gether. 

Leaving  that  great  class  of  beings,  some 
of  whom  move  gently  in  their  environment, 
while  others,  through  seeking  to  bend  the 
mighty  eventful  current  to  their  wills,  lash  the 
sea  into  a  foaming  fury,  and  still  following  the 
evolutionary  movement  of  that  protoplasm, 
we  find  it  a  vertebrate  and  upon  the  land.  It 
must  learn  to  walk  ;  internal  forces  must  have 
a  better  opportunity  for  unfoldment,  it  must 
have  a  larger  scope,  more  and  more  of  the 
environment  ;  no  longer  easy  movement, 
carried  by  the  ocean  current ;  that  proto- 
plasm feels  itself  abused,  pulled  down  from  a 
high  estate  all  its  own,  and  disappointed,  it 
croaks. 

Nature,  weary  with  dull  plodding,  for  her 
own    encouragement    created  the    birds.      And, 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  203 

oh  !  the  eagle,  up,  up,  her  feet  freed  from 
the  dirt  of  earth,  in  space  away,  away,  of  sub- 
limity and  grandeur  what  must  her  soul  not 
feel.  Once  more  we  find  that  mass  of  proto- 
plasm fastened  to  the  earth,  but,  oh  !  the  earth 
is  grand  and  good,  is  willing  to  be  helpful, 
to  aid  in  the  progress  of  the  body  and  the 
soul. 

Once  it  starts  in  individual  motion  nothing 
can  arrest  life-force.  The  principle  of  activity 
knows  no  cessation.  Differentiation,  variation, 
are  the  natural  accompaniments  of  its  tune- 
ful course.  Movements  along  all  lines  would, 
from  the  primal  starting  point,  be  progressive 
but  for  hinderments  begotten  by  the  mortal, 
the  devilish  mind. 

By  ape  the  marvel  was  foreshadowed,  and 
the  bud  blossomed  out,  and  that  protoplasm 
stands  erect,  is  man.  Look  within  ;  there  is  a 
skeleton. 

While  the  evolution  of  being  is  from  the  pri- 
mal starting  point  a  progressive  motion,  and 
while  the  general  movement  of  society  is  ever  on- 


204  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

ward,  whether  in  particular  instances  the  social 
motion  be  one  of  progress  forward  or  not,  just 
depends.  There  is  a  state  of  communism,  and, 
willy  nilly,  all  are  "  in  it ;  "  substance  and  spirit, 
or  protoplasm  and  force,  in  the  environment. 

To  live,  all  animated  things  must  breathe, 
must  drink  and  eat ;  and  a  prerequisite  to  prog- 
ress is  freedom  of  movement.  You  perceive 
that,  to  begin  with,  there  is  an  essential  uni- 
formity :  but  be  not  exercised,  my  individualis- 
tic brother;  variation,  by  the  very  condition 
which  so  alarms  you,  is  secured.  Omnipotence 
is  at  the  helm  ;  trust  it.  There  is  no  occasion 
for  an  economic  Saint  Paul. 

The  environment  does  its  part ;  there  are 
opportunities,  there  are  supplies.  To  provide 
the  body  with  organic  means  of  adjustment, 
with  sense  organs,  is  the  duty  of  internal  force. 
Differentiation,  variation,  with  ghostlike  tread 
follow  the  main  lines  of  motion,  and  so  within 
the  body  there  are  organs  distinct  but  not  sep- 
arate, co-related  by  the  fact  that  for  the  organ- 
ism  each    does    a  useful     work  ;  co-related   by 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  205 

their  mutual  equal  dependence  upon  a  common 
environment,  the  blood  supply  ;  and  co-related 
by  that  environment's  impartial,  equal  distribu- 
tion. 

Each  organ  just  helps  itself  to  what  the  gen- 
eral fund  contains,  and  itself  decides  zvhat  is  for 
it;  be  there  interference,  overloading  or  con- 
gestion of  some  part,  then  disease  and  death 
result.  Soundness  of  mind,  health  of  body,  ab- 
solutely depend  upon  the  exercise  of  equal 
freedom  by  all  the  body's  parts,  depend  upon 
the  preservation  of  natural  rights,  of  equality. 
Shocking  communism,  but  which  of  us  is  willing 
to  declare  it  off  ?  Social  law  is  the  condition  of 
good  management.  Would  you  scale  the  moun- 
tain's side,  then  to  your  aid  the  plane  is  inclined. 
Blessed  uniformity,  were  thy  smiling,  peaceful 
face  oftener  seen,  welcomed  by  society,  great 
conservation  of  energy  and  great  progress  would 
be  made. 

"  Let  us  assume  "  that  there  comes  unto  our 
new-born  man,  from  out  celestial  space,  an  avatar ; 
tells  him  that  through   struggling  against  the 


206  SOCIOECONOMIC    MYTHES 

needless  ignorance,  and  through  work,  there 
will  in  course  of  time  come  a  manifestation  of 
great  advancement  by  the  human  folks  ;  tells 
him  that  where  dense  forests  rule  supreme, 
where  he,  a  naked  savage,  stands,  cities  shall 
spring  up,  that  folks  shall  dwell  in  houses,  pro- 
tected from  the  wind  and  rain,  and,  though  unac- 
quainted, shall  live  together  in  peace  and  in 
harmony  ;  that  people  shall  go  dressed,  and  in 
that  future  men  and  women  shall  travel,  not  on 
foot,  great  distances ;  shall  skim  the  mighty 
waters,  not  on  icebergs,  but  in  houses  propelled 
by  imprisoned  steam  ;  that  food  to  be  eaten  shall 
be  cooked,  and  that  about  its  condition  folks 
will  evince  some  little  nicety,  some  cleanliness. 

Look  quick  !  That  savage  leaps  into  the 
jungle,  and  hark  to  that  shriek  :  U-TO-PI-AN. 

The  gentle  god  within  that  savage  soul  had 
not  her  wings  unfurled  ;  unconscious  of  the 
"  still  small  voice,"  but  conscious  of  the  brutal 
wish,  his  answer  was  but  natural.  Construction 
results  from  the  relationing  of  parts  according 
to  their  natural  condition  of  adjustment  ;  be  this 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  207 

rule  despised,  conceive  yourselves,  is  it  possible 
to  have  a  house  or  a  bed  ?  That  alone  is  natu- 
ral which  bears  the  stamp  of  Om,  which  springs 
from  the  inherent  constitution  of  a  thing,  from 
its  essence,  spirit  ;  conceive  yourselves,  is  it 
possible  to  convert  pine  into  cherry  wood  ? 
Biological  records  silently  say  that  inconceivable 
ages  passed  before  the  mind  became  an  entity 
with  force  sufficient  to  the  construction  of  the 
human  form,  but  since  the  occurrence  of  this 
formation  in  structural  life,  inconceivably  great 
(along  some  lines)  has  been  the  mind's  ad- 
vancement. 

This  progress  has  been  occasioned  by  the  per- 
petual onward  motion  of  perception,  how  to  re- 
lation parts,  how  to  build  ;  continual  overtaking 
of  the  processes  of  construction  is  what  we  mean 
by  knowledge.  To  discover  like  points  is  the 
function  of  primary  intuition  ;  as  a  result  of  this 
act  differences  are  secondarily  disclosed.  Uni- 
formity is  what  we  should  seek.  The  condition 
of  association  is  the  condition  of  good  manage- 
ment.     Social  law  is  the  economic  law.     When 


208  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

economic  utilities  were  made  with  tools,  oppor- 
tunities were  freer  and  the  laborer  had  a  chance 
to  breathe  ;  he  was  then  upon  the  general  public 
directly  dependent,  and  for  him  there  was  social 
hope,  that  is,  were  he  from  godly  control  of 
kings  and  vicegerents  indemnified  by  being  in  a 
country  akin  to  what  ours  was  for  a  time  after 
the  Revolution. 

Wasn't  t/iata.  glorious  strike  against  tyranny  ? 
Stirred  by  an  overmastering  sense  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  their  natural  rights,  stung  into  perception 
of  their  duty  to  the  individual  self,  our  people 
with  dignity  rose  up,  united  ;  the  men  and  women 
became  strikers,  would  no  longer  brook  "oppres- 
sion's heel."  Read  their  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  its  grand  soul  you  will  feel.  In 
the  army  and  navy  was  the  tyrant's  hope.  Our 
people  stood  united.  God  be  thanked  for  strikes 
and  strikers  ! 

At  the  patience  of  the  poor  I  marvel.  By 
the  vast  use  of  vast  machinery  production  is 
effected.  Division  of  labor  is  multiform  and 
varied.      Our   socio-industrial  methods   may  be 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  2(X) 

likened  to  the  sun,  upon  whose  rays,  for  a  chance 
to  live,  each  being  is  directly  dependent.  Now 
let  us  assume  the  doings  of  that  mighty  orb  de- 
communized,  brought  under  the  individual  con- 
trol of  our  coal  barons,  they  who  produce  an 
artificial  scarcity  of  fuel,  who  fill  their  pockets 
by  freezing  their  fellows,  freezing  some  of  them 
to  death.  But  then  our  country's  manufacturers 
must  be  protected,  and  against  the  dangers  of  a 
comfortable  fire  the  laborer  secured  by  a  repre- 
sentative government.  Association  is  not  the 
condition  of  good  management,  and  the  social 
law  is  not  the  economic  law.  Do  away  with  the 
use  of  machinery,  return  to  individual  methods 
of  production  ?  What  absurdity !  I  trust  I 
hear  the  evolution-sound  better.  There  is  a  pig 
to  be  roasted ;  to  accomplish  the  feat  I  leave  to 
men  the  practical  logic  of  burning  the  house 
down.  Onward,  ever  onward,  is  my  motto ; 
give  loose  rein  unto  the  intellect ;  more  machinery 
and  better,  fine  and  finer  work  ;  but  that  which 
is  unnatural  (individual  control)  I  would  wipe 
out. 


2IO  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Imagine  the  two  halves  of  a  sphere  out  of 
relation,  not  adjusted  to  each  other.  Econo- 
mics is  a  sphere.  Production  implies  distribu- 
tion. The  methods  of  production  are  co-opera- 
tive, are  socialistic.  The  state  of  distribution 
is  anarchistic.  Are  beauty  and  the  beast  a 
well-matched  pair  ?  Increased  use  of  machin- 
ery marks  the  evolution  of  the  race.  By  indi- 
vidual control  the  greatest  blessing  is  converted 
into  a  social  Juggernaut,  into  a  curse.  "  O  fool- 
ish men,  what  hath  bewitched  you  "  that  ye  see 
not  the  simplest  truths  of  relation  ?  The  two 
halves  of  a  sphere  must  be  mated,  their  posi- 
tions must  match. 

That  which  is  unnatural  is  pre-doomed.  On 
track  of  consistency  our  men  are  not  keen-scen- 
ted hounds.  By  the  money  mirage  and  the  word 
"earn"  do  not  longer  be  befooled;  open 
your  eyes  and  look  beneath  the  surface  ;  it  will 
do  you  good  to  strain  your  intellectual  vision  ; 
remember  there's  reward ;  the  senses  came 
through  tensive  effort.  Economic  utilities 
should,  by  the  laws  of  motion,  by  reaction,  move 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  211 

backward  to  their  source,  to  the  laborer.  Pos- 
session by  appropriation  has  quite  another 
source.  With  constructive  labor  be  pleased  to 
correlate  the  motions  of  the  entrepreneur. 
Profits  unsocialized,  it  is  to  the  money  interest 
of  the  controller  of  production  to  make  things 
scarce  and  dear.  The  principle  of  capitalis- 
tic production  is,  the  least  possible  supply  to 
the  consumer  consistent  with  the  greatest 
possible  gain  to  myself  ;  accordingly  social  anom- 
alies. Machines  are  in  existence  that,  were 
they  operated  in  the  interest  of  all,  would  re- 
lieve everyone  from  drudgery,  and  would  make 
nobody  one  whit  the  worse  off ;  and  yet  for 
general  use  such  machines  are  inaccessible, 
are  in  fact  converted  by  the  few  into  a  means 
by  which  they  cudgel  the  many. 

I  have  seen  machines  which  ironed  hundreds 
of  shirts  in  a  day,  and  yet  their  feet  were  not 
tired,  and  their  backs  did  not  ache.  Now, 
think  of  women  perspiring  over  flatirons. 
Bah  !  the  thing  is  sickening.  Why,  so  easy  is 
it    to  produce,  that   capitalism,   if  left  to    itself, 


212  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

would  fade  away  into  the  dim  and  misty 
space  of  nowhere  ;  but  bolstered  up  by  vicious 
under-legislation  it  stays  with  us,  assists  in 
the  intellectual  and  moral  progress  of  society. 
Capitalism,  "  red  in  tooth  and  claw,"  violates 
the  sanctity  of  home  life,  drags  wives  and 
mothers  to  its  foul  embrace.  Unsatisfied,  it 
stops  not  ;  there  are  the  children  ;  aye,  the 
monster  would  clutch  from  the  cradle  un- 
weaned  babes  could  their  tiny  fingers  hold  a 
bobbin.  How  men  do  respect  the  home  and 
the  women  when  they  have  a  lust  to  be  grat- 
ified !  An  economic  philanthropist,  a  million- 
aire, briefly  precipitated  capitalism's  whole  mat- 
ter when  he  said,  "The  public  be  damned." 

Knowing  something  of  the  facts  of  motion 
and  of  the  facts  of  form,  I  know  where  to 
relation  actions  that  are  stamped  illegal,  such 
as  counterfeiting,  stealing,  and  burglary.  Never 
do  I  look  at  a  prison  Jiomc(?),  never  do  I 
think  of  one,  but  my  soul  is  filled  with  hor- 
ror for  the  iniquity,  not  of  those  who  are  inside. 
Every  impure  thought,  every  grasping    desire, 


AND     MYTHE-MAKERS.  21 3 

finds  a  lodgment  somewhere  in  that  picture- 
gallery,  the  mind.  Political  society  is  not  a  pat- 
tern housekeeper,  he  is  not  clean  ;  conditions 
are  filthy  and  breed  moral  vermin.  Is  there 
prostitution  ?  Why,  then  it  comes  in  answer 
to  the  demand  of  our  men.  While  women  by 
conditions  are  made  economically  dependent, 
some  of  them  have  no  choice,  no  other  means 
by  which  to  get  a  living.  Economic  commu- 
nism, socialism,  would  indeed  be  a  disastrous 
thing,  would  interfere  with  male  legislation  on 
the  "age  of  consent."  As  long  as  the  ballot 
expresses  brutal  feelings  and  does  not  repre- 
sent ideas,  society  will  have  a  moral  stench. 
Men,  unlike  the  vestal  virgins,  prepare  them- 
selves for  the  sacrifice  by  no  purifying  rites. 

Now,  is  it  not  just  a  trifle  officious  in  author- 
ity to  tell  us  that  men  are  in  the  image  of  their 
Maker  ?  Watch  their  conduct  ;  a  holy  exhibit, 
isn't  it  ?  While  society  is  political,  while  there 
is  violation  of  the  moral  law,  illegal  acts  are 
merely  responses  to  the  political  liturgy ;  but 
when  an  atrocity  is  committed  the  difference  to 


214  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

the  offender  is  great,  is  dependent  upon  which 
side  of  the  fence  he  was  on  at  the  time  he  dealt 
morality  the  blow.  Our  other  selves,  illegal  of- 
fenders against  the  moral  law,  "with  the  jus- 
tice of  your  cause  few  are  concerned." 

In  the  West  a  star  has  arisen  ;  there  an  ad- 
ministrator avers  that  in  the  case  of  an  employ- 
ee's dereliction,  it  is  just  and  it  is  wise  to  take 
into  consideration  the  example  set  him  by  the 
employing  corporation.  God  be  thanked  for 
Altgeld,  governor  of  Illinois.  This  attitude 
saves  from  pure  rottenness  the  administration 
of  our  socio-industrial   Sodom  and  Gomorrah. 

Motions,  according  to  their  character,  are 
classified  into  constructive  and  destructive. 
To  plant  your  field  with  wheat,  stumps  must 
be  removed  ;  could  the  stumps  speak  they 
would  say  —  anarchist.  The  operations  of  the 
mind  reveal  that  builder  and  anarchist  travel 
together  ;  evolution,  holding  the  rein,  guides  ; 
philosophic  anarchism  accompanies  reason's 
work,  but  is  reason  chained,  then  anarchism  has 
no  choice,  has  to  work    by  its  other  method. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  21  5 

A  mind  gives  to  the  world  its  ideas  ;  is  that 
mind's  enjoyment  of  its  own  thereby  lessened  ? 
Not  a  whit  ;  its  enjoyment  is  enhanced  by 
sharing. 

Myself  with  others  ;  communism  is  the 
socio-psychological  rule  and  to  it  there  is  no 
exception.  Blundering  Om.  Look,  that  idea 
takes  on  gross  material  form,  and  among  the 
means  of  production  it  is  placed.  And  now 
note  the  character  of  the  procedure :  myself 
with  others  is  the  exception  ;  myself  against 
others,  myself  without  others,  is  invariably  the 
rule.  Men  are  loth  to  break,  by  an  occasional 
godlike  blunder,  the  monotony  of  perfection 
that  attends  their  socio-industrial  work.  To 
vary  uniformity  is  sometimes  well ;  their  case 
would  by  such  complication  seem,  at  least  to  me, 
more  hopeful. 

Man's  practical  reasoning  says,  I  am  no 
marauder  ;  look,  I  have  gewgaws,  am  stamped, 
am,  you  see,  under  orders  ;  mine  is  the  holy 
crusade,  legal  indulgence  to  murder  folks  out- 
right,   or,  stopping  short   of  that,  to  produce   at 


2l6  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

least  a  lingering  death  by  robbing  them  of 
their  opportunities.  Still  I  am  human ;  who 
can  challenge  the  fact  ?  Is  not  such  absurdity, 
I  ask,  enough  to  convulse  the  very  fiends  in 
hell  with  uproarious  laughter  ?  Heaven  was 
not  reached  by  that  tower  in  Babel  ;  yet  listen 
to  the  verdict  of  our  men.  Competition  is 
great,  is  our  motor  impulse  ;  through  its  oper- 
ations all  socio-industrial  progress  is  made. 
Improvements  in  machinery  are  wrought,  and  a 
cheapening  of  fabrics  is  the  result  of  competi- 
tion ;  discoveries  have  been  made  because  of  it. 
Competition  produces  wealth,  gives  us  cheap 
oil.  And  the  Standard  Oil  Company  ?  I  que- 
ried. Well,  not  exactly  ;  consolidation,  union, 
was  the  cause  of  that.  There  are  occasions 
when  competition  is  in  abeyance  and  goes  to 
the  wall.  Still,  you  will  allow  that  competi- 
tion is  just  wonderful  ;  to  the  delectation  of 
its  plutocratic  rider  it  heads  in  opposite  di- 
rections at  the  same  time.  I  reckon  that 
you  are  without  the  experiences  furnished  by 
our    gas    companies  ;  why,   if  it  were    not    for 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  217 

competition  they'd  eat  us  up,  leave  nothing 
for  food  and  clothes  and  our  poor  landlords. 
At  all  events,  from  time  to  time  the  city  council 
by  logic  is  convinced,  new  franchises  are  bestow- 
ed, streets  torn  up,  and  dirt,  dirt.  No  matter ; 
that  makes  work,  and  work  is  the  thing  we 
want. 

Now,  did  women  manage  their  domestic  affairs 
on  the  political  plan,  where,  oh  where,  would 
society  land  ?  Happily  they  don't,  their  imita- 
tion of  the  politico-economic  ways  of  men  goes 
no  further  than  the  production  of  crazy  quilts. 
But  then  women  are  not  creators,  are  limited 
to  fancy. 

The  men  exercise  imagination,  and  while  I 
don't  deny  that  in  their  doings  they  always 
have  in  vie  wan  objective  end,  still  at  all  times 
the  all-important  business  on  their  hands  is  to 
create  an  appearance,  a  bustle.  In  medicine 
persistent  confusion  is  attributed  to  vertigo,  to 
lightness  of  the  head.  What  competition  does 
is  to  loosen  the  grasp  of  an  individual  appro- 
priation.     Competition  produces  nothing  ;  why, 


2l8  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

how  can  it  ?  Yet  the  men  don't  see  it.  I 
wonder  are  they  arrant  liars,  or  is  theirs  a  case 
of  uncomplicated 

And  now,  my  sisters,  a  word  to  you.  Be  not 
disturbed,  nor  by  trifles  overwrought.  Should 
I  say  the  sun  shone  not,  would  the  fact  be  al- 
tered by  a  say-so  ?  About  that  challenge  of 
our  title  to  "  curves,"  lines  of  beauty,  what  did 
it  matter  ?  There  is,  however,  one  undoubted 
fact  :  no  chance  for  a  contest  over  which  sex 
has  the  corner  on  curves  in  the  mind,  cor- 
ner on  curves  in  the  morals.  Again,  I  urge,  be 
not  officious  ;  Mother  Nature  needeth  not  your 
help,  she  is  equal  to  the  work,  has  all  eternity 
in  which  to  do  a  stupendous  job,  endow  om 
Schopenhauers  with  brains. 

Socialism  (I  will  trouble  you  to  consult  a 
a  dictionary)  —  socialism,  like  woman,  has  a 
character,  and  at  present,  unlike  woman's,  it 
is  bad.  The  cause,  germs  in  the  thought-atmo- 
sphere, and  of  course  heredity.  To  discover  the 
origin  of  these  germs  we  must  travel  backward 
to  our  long-past  ancestry.      By  the  bull's  fierce 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  219 

ravings  the  herd  deemed  itself  protected  ;  did 
not  know  that  those  ravings  really  invited  battle. 
The  international  thought  had  not  taken  root ; 
doings  were  prompted,  not  by  the  social  feeling, 
but  by  the  political  thought.  Such  is  the  origin 
of  the  paternal  or  political  socialism  which  among 
humans  is  extant. 

One  must  go  deeper  for  the  cause  of  its  per- 
petuation. As  we  have  seen,  the  male  was  bio- 
logically started  on  an  everlasting  tour,  with  his 
actual  possessions  in  the  form  of  potentialities  ; 
by  experience  of  what  is  in  the  external  he  has 
built  up  solidity.  Still  he  moves  forward  only 
as  he  is  moved  by  hard  knocks.  Man  sees 
things  on  the  bias,  does  not  see  them  on  the 
straight  ;  consequently  we  have  paternal  or  po- 
litical socialism. 

I  am  asked  my  opinion  of  Henry  Wood  and 
his  book.  Here  it  is  ;  take  it.  I  feel  pity  for 
the  urchin  who  fumbles  in  the  gutter,  who  col- 
lects and  piles  up  the  stumps  of  dirty  cigars, 
but  his  vocation  —  ugh  !  —  I  despise.  When  I 
read  upon  the  title  page  of  a  book,  "  The  Politi- 


220  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

cal  Economy  of  Natural  Law,"  words  which,  if 
they  mean  anything,  mean  the  party  manage- 
ment of  natural  conditions,  and  then  observe 
how  widely  separated  are  the  contents  of  said 
book  and  its  title,  I  want  to  be  a  sister  to  that 
author,  advise  him  for  his  good,  advise  him  to 
get  a  pocket  dictionary.  But  then  to  the  busi- 
ness world  Henry  Wood  claims  that  his  books 
are  acceptable.      Need  more  be  said  ? 

"Wealth  and  Progress,"  by  George  Gunton. 
Build  up  the  wants  of  the  poor  ?  Ah  !  some- 
where I  have  seen  it  stated  that  an  eminent 
lawyer,  when  summing  up  his  case  in  few  but 
fitting  words,  briefly  disposed  of  a  witness  whose 
perjury  was  made  apparent  by  frantic  efforts  to 
debauch  the  jury-mind  :  And  I. now  come,  gentle- 
men of  the  jury,  to  the  testimony  of  John  Van 
Zandt,  may  God  have  mercy  on  his  soul. 
"Peace,  peace,  and  there  is  no  peace." 

Professor  Bemis,  with  an  eye  half  open,  utters 
a  mild  protest  against  the  violent  infraction  of 
moral  law  and  order  by  trusts  and  monopolies, 
but  he  is  not  for  this  thrown  out  of  the  Chicago 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  221 

University ;  a  subsidized  institution  does  not  act 
in  that  way.  It  is  not  an  anarchist.  This 
is  how  it  does  it.  Note  the  difference  in 
method,  and  note  the  difference  to  Prof.  Bemis 
in  the  resulting  end.  The  president,  Christ's 
apostle  upon  the  earth,  a  representative  of  His, 
gives  the  sinner  warning  that  criticizing  money- 
mongers  is  unchrist-like  and  objectionable  to 
"  my  lord;"  then,  merely  as  a  matter  of  emphasis, 
to  objectivize  the  disapprobation  of  wrongdoing, 
the  president,  either  in  a  direct  or  a  roundabout 
way,  calls  for  Prof.  B's  voluntary  resignation, 
which  despite  an  alternative  is  tendered.  That 
is  all  there  is  to  it.  Now,  are  you  the  person, 
in  the  face  of  purifying  ceremonies,  forms,  to 
persist  in  misplacing  the  word  anarchist  ? 
Chicago's  capitalistic  waters  were  troubled,  were 
roiled,  but  oil  was  at  hand.  Uprose  the  sleek, 
smooth  Harper,  his  lamp  was  full  and  trimmed, 
himself  was  ready  to  obey  the  behests  of  KING 
MONEY.  Lumped,  his  actions  and  his  words 
amount  to  just  this :  By  the  facts  of  structure, 
by  the  modes  of  motion,  zoologists  may  classify 


222  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

the  animals  with  which  they  deal  ;  that  such  is 
the  scientific  method  of  arrangement  I  don't 
deny,  but  I  follow  no  such  stupid  example,  am 
not  bound  down,  hampered,  by  principles  of  law 
and  order.  For  an  anarchist  am  I  to  be  mis- 
taken ?  My  education  in  the  arts  has  been 
better.  Trust  me,  I,  the  Lord's  anointed,  hear 
the  still  small  voice  and  know  how  to  treat  my 
master  brute. 

Natural  selection  has  produced  a  variety  of 
socio-economic  talkers,  whose  differences  are 
found  in  their  pin  feathers  and  not  in  their 
plumage,  and  so  Professor  Laughlin  protests 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  labor  problem  ; 
the  whole  matter  in  sum  and  substance  amounts 
to  simply  this  :  idleness,  viciousness,  crime. 
True,  professor  dear,  but  art  sure  that  you  are 
equal  to  locating  that  category  ?  Cornell  mourns, 
has  lost  a  professorial  curiosity,  one  whose  powers 
of  logical  thought  are  not  entirely  "  out  of  sight," 
not  beyond  the  reach  of  woodchuck  and  of  mole. 
Prof.  Laughlin  is  an  explorer,  is  of  an  inductive 
turn  of  mind,  has  a  discovery  made,  unearthed 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  223 

a  brilliant  :  what  the  plutocrat  receives  is  merely 
wages  for  his  skill  in  managing.  Management 
of  what  ?  Management  for  what  ?  Why  so 
chary  of  thy  knowledge?  "Marry,  sirrah,  I'd 
have  thee  beaten  "  for  KING  MONEY'S  jester. 

Strange,  is  it  not,  that  folks  persist  in  confus- 
ing labor  with  laborer,  capital  with  capitalist, 
and  cap  the  climax  by  using  interchangeably  the 
terms  laborer  and  commodity,  the  thing  the 
laborer  produces.  Among  educated  persons 
there  exists  a  lamentable  want  of  penetration 
into  the  contents  of  words ;  it  is  shown  even  by 
Mr.  Stead,  he  who  is  distressed  lest,  slighting 
good  London,  Christ  should  come  to  wicked 
Chicago.  Unacquainted  with  Chicago's  coterie 
of  earnest  socialistic  women,  he  is  hard  upon  the 
windy  city.  Even  he  does  not  know  the  mean- 
ing and  the  application  of  the  little  word 
"expose." 

One  portion  of  the  variety  of  talkers  to  which 
I  have  referred  avers  that  things  are  really  wrong 
and  do  need  straightening,  that  economic  changes 
of  necessity  must  come,  and  then  there  will  be 


224  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTIIES 

a  marked,  a  great  improvement.  They  protest, 
however,  that  we  are  not  ready  for  improve- 
ment ;  to  straighten  is  positively  dangerous ; 
might  snap  the  social  spine,  might  break  society's 
broad  back.  These  who  so  affirm  are  our  vin- 
dicated, timid,  our  loving  little  fearful  Elyites. 

You  are  hungry  ;  the  hour  is  noon  ;  by  hunger 
nature  gets  you  ready  for  a  reception,  dinner. 
When  it  is  due,  the  laborer  wants  his  week's  pay ; 
a  demagogue  strives  through  legislation  to  se- 
cure the  workingman  this  great  favor.  The 
affrighted  banker  shrieks  "over-legislation." 
Queer,  isn't  it  ? 

A  book  is  in  my  hand,  its  title  "Justice;"  a 
misnomer.  Its  author,  indeed  I  am  ashamed  to 
tell  it,  is  Herbert  Spencer,  he  who  wrote  "  First 
Principles."  "How  are  the  mighty  fallen!" 
The  mountain  which  on  high  ejected  substance, 
fire  and  lava,  now  belches  forth  just  dirty  smoke, 
bedraggled  ideas.  "  Can  a  man  enter  his 
mother's  womb  and  be  born  again  ?"  I  should 
say  it  would  at  least  be  well  to  take  a  fresh  start. 

In  other  days  it  was  the  custom  to  entertain, 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  225 

to  amuse,  by  the  method  of  telling  stories.  For 
the  dramatis  persona  is  my  audience  ready  ?  I 
must  advise,  however,  that,  taken  together,  their 
strains  prove  no  symphony,  pitched  to  different 
keys  as  you  will  at  once  perceive  ;  yet  from  the 
overtones  each  one  of  you  may  gather  the  music 
of  knowledge.  The  one  first  upon  my  list  is  no 
stranger  ;  the  principles  he  embodies  are  in  fact 
the  co-respondent  to  our  almost  every  thought. 
Principle  of  sympathy  is  not,  as  you  know,  in 
our  social  drama,  cast  to  an  intelligent  part. 

Mr.  Individualist :  "  Ladies  and  gentlemen, 
I  shall  not  occupy  at  length  your  valuable  time, 
nor  do  I  apprehend  that  upon  this  occasion  it  is 
necessary.  I  advocate  principles  which  have 
not  to  build  up  new  mental  states,  nor  make 
additions  to  the  soul.  I  am  not  a  socialist. 
Always  has  it  been  my  luck  to  find  a  chord 
vibrating  responsive  to  my  touch.  I  wish  this 
morning  to  call  attention  to  the  characteristic 
greatness  of  the  age  in  which  we  live,  surrounded 
as  we  are  by  the  works  of  art  and  artizan  ;  and 
permit  me  to  arrest  for  a  few  brief  moments  the 


226  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

diffusiveness  of  your  thought,  by  nailing  it  to  a 
point  —  the  reason  of  our  greatness.  To  what 
do  we  owe  advancement  —  the  distance  between 
us  and  savages  ?  I  expect  the  soulful  response, 
amen,  to  come  from  every  person  present  when 
I  shall  have  named  the  grand  cause  —  individual 
freedom  and  competition.  To  shackle  the  limbs 
of  man  is  a  tyrant's  work,  and  he  who  does  it 
is  the  violator  of  the  '  formula  of  justice  ;  '  every 
man  is  free  to  do  that  which  he  wills,  provided 
he  infringes  not  the  equal  freedom  of  any  other 
man. 

"  But,  my  friends,  though  man  has  a  right  to 
unshackled  limbs,  and  a  right  to  physical  integ- 
rity, and  though  of  some  of  the  'natural  media' 
he  has  the  right  of  use,  yet  Almighty  wisdom 
has  seen  fit  through  man,  His  image,  to  draw 
the  line  upon  equal  individual  freedom,  and  to 
arrest  it  at  the  land  point.  The  principle  of  in- 
equality must  by  my  lambs  be  maintained,  saith 
the  Lord.  The  inconceivable  advantages  accru- 
ing from  this  arrest  have,  by  'a  distinguished 
thinker,'  the  Rev.  T.  R.  Malthus,  been  exposed ; 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  227 

his  keen  intellect  probed  this  matter  to  the  very 
core.  Accordingly  we  know  that  by  land  mo- 
nopoly wealth  has  been  spontaneously  created ; 
by  this  device  nature,  mean,  niggardly  mother 
nature,  is  compelled  to  give  her  destitute  chil- 
dren a  bounty  —  rent. 

"  Nor  is  this  benefit  all ;  the  great  science  has 
discovered  that  increase  in  the  amount  of  culti- 
vation is  in  direct  ratio  to  decrease  in  the  num- 
ber of  persons  having  an  opportunity  to  work 
the  land.  Man,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  a  many- 
sided  being,  but  when  considering  him  in  an  in- 
dustrial aspect, disturbing  elements  must  be  elim- 
inated. With  the  economic  conception  simpli- 
fied, man,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  stands  forth  a 
creature  moved  by  but  a  single  impulse,  gain  ; 
actuated  by  but  one  desire,  greed.  Over  moun- 
tain steeps,  through  gorges  and  ravines,  he 
climbs,  he  wades,  he  dives,  for  his  oivn  gain. 
Shall  we  hamper  the  heroic  spirit  ?  Laisscz  faire 
is  the  word.  I  ask,  is  society  equal  to  the  '  con- 
ception of  a  harmonious  life,'  equal  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  conditions  calculated  to  call  out  the 


228  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

better  side  of  man's  nature  ?  Suppose  the  ridic- 
ulous proposition  is  admitted,  then  I  ask,  have 
you  the  conscience  to  encourage  sin,  over-legis- 
lation, interference  with  individual  freedom, 
change  the  conception  of  what  is  required  in 
economic  man  ?  To  public  schools  I  say,  get 
thee  behind  me,  Satan  ;  myself  would  put  them 
down  by  the  law's  strong  arm.  In  that  Utopia, 
'  Looking  Backward  ',  socio-economic  equality  is 
pictured,  everybody  is  put  on  a  level.  The 
thing  is  unnatural ;  brains  must  tell  ;  can't  bring 
a  millionaire  down  to  the  position  of  a  pauper. 
Shouldn't  a  man  have  what  he  earns  ?  " 

(Voice  from  the  audience  :  "  Which  man  ?  ") 
"  To  assume  that  men  either  can  or  will  live 
harmoniously  in  the  socio-economic  state,  my- 
self with  others  their  inspiring  thought,  is,  to 
say  the  least,  trifling,  and  to  assume  that  com- 
petition can  be  tamely  directed  along  the  line 
of  equal  effort  to  do  honest,  good  work,  is,  ladies 
and  gentlemen,  in  my  humble  opinion  an  agita- 
ting thought,  is  in  short  an  anarchistic  move, 
and  I  am  not  an  anarchist.  " 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  229 

(Voice  :  "  Then  you  disapprove  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution  ? ") 

"  By  the  principles  and  methods  advocated  in 
the  Utopia  to  which  I  have  referred,  '  the  intel- 
lectually and  physically  feeble  are  to  be  quite  as 
well  off  as  others.  '  Now,  I  have  a  question  to 
ask  of  this  intelligent  audience,  which  will,  I 
think,  settle  this  whole  matter  right  here  and 
for  all  time  :  Which  of  you  would  like  to  have 
your  poor  old  father,  your  aged,  decrepit  mother, 
an  invalid  sister,  or,  it  may  be,  a  feeble-minded 
brother,  economically  independent,  provided 
with  all  comforts,  conditions  which  are  desired 
by  your  own  strong  self  ?  Why,  the  thing  is 
anarchistic,  economically  impious,  denies  the 
principle  of  inequality,  exalts  the  principle  of  in- 
telligent sympathy ;  it  ought  not,  cannot,  shall 
not  be.  See  '  formula  of  justice.'  Competition, 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  so  closely  connected 
with  freedom  that  one  can  scarcely  say  which 
is  Minerva  and  which  is  Jove.  Amidst  the  buf- 
fetings  which  on  every  hand  beset  individual 
freedom,  let  us  offer  a  paean  of  praise,  for  com- 
petition is  free.     Hallelujah  !  " 


23O  SOCIOECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Before  introducing  the  next  speaker,  as  presid- 
ing officer  of  this  meeting  I  wish  to  say  that 
the  desire  is  to  preserve  as  large  an  amount  of 
individual  freedom  as  is  consistent  with  social 
decorum,  therefore  questions  and  remarks  are 
in  order  after  the  speaker  has  sat  down.  Will 
Mr.  Individualist  show  us  how  his  use  of  the  ge- 
neric term,  man,  how  his  general  explanation  of 
man's  nature,  either  accounts  for  or  justifies  the 
socio-economic  atrocity  of  society's  division  into 
those  who  produce  and  those  who  pillage  the  pro- 
ducer? I  confess  that  I  for  one  do  not  perceive 
the  point  of  application. 

"  Really,  madam,  the  point  which  you  have 
raised  requires  hours  for  its  elucidation  ;  there 
are  other  speakers,  and  time  is  pressing ;  pray 
excuse  me  if  I  decline  to  attempt  important 
matter  requiring  more  time  than,  at  present,  is 
at  our  disposal." 

The  chair  asks  the  favor  of  making  a  few  re- 
marks. From  the  expressions  of  our  honored 
speaker  I  have  inferred  that  he  deems  fraternal 
socialism    a    state    unnatural   to    people,    to  us 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  23  I 

humans.  Sir,  is  my  inference  right,  or  do  I 
stand  corrected  ?  Is  it  not  a  fact  that  things, 
according  to  the  position  they  occupy  in  time 
and  space,  are  either  natural  or  unnatural  ?  If 
this  be  so,  does  the  principle  which  determines 
naturalness  or  unnaturalness  cease  to  work  as 
we  cease  to  deal  with  the  apparently  objective 
things  of  time  and  space  ?  I  think  not  ;  its  ap- 
plication to  the  phenomena  in  Beings-space,  in 
Species- time,  is  no  less  valid.  And  again  I  ask, 
is  it  not  a  fact,  that  of  living  beings  each  species 
has  its  peculiar,  its  differentiating  principle, 
which  informs  and  animates  its  social  motions, 
and  that  conduct,  to  be  natural  to  a  species, 
must  be  dictated  by,  and  in  line  with,  that  spe- 
cies' informing  principle  ?  Things  are  right  and 
natural  only  when  particulars  fit  into  generals. 
Upon  the  fact  of  progress  I  think  we  all  agree. 
Now,  if  the  human  principle  in  its  general  social 
workings  is  so  little  different  from  that  which 
animates  the  herbivora,  why,  I,  for  one,  propose 
that  we  throw  off  hypocrisy,  do  the  creditable — 
go  upon  all  fours. 


232  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Guided  by  the  "legal  merits  of  the  case" 
society  tolerates  invasion  of  equal,  of  natural, 
rights  to  opportunities,  tolerates  moral  lawless- 
ness. 

He  who  is  next  upon  my  list  is  the  product 
of  the  capitalistic  regime,  political  or  paternal 
socialism.  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  now  intro- 
duce the  Tramp  ;  upon  him  observe  the  naevus- 
paternus. 

Tramp:  "Tell  my  story?  It's  not  uncom- 
mon ;  '  millions  in  it.'  Well,  when  I  was  young 
we  kept  our  heads  above  water,  had  comforts, 
though  father  was  inclined  to  drink.  Vested 
interests  must  be  supported  ;  they  are  the  im- 
portant thing,  are  after  profits,  and  so  the  li- 
quor poison  is  itself  poisoned.  Father  died. 
I,  the  eldest  born,  was  fifteen,  hated  liquor, 
would  not  drink,  left  school,  and  went  to  work. 
The  family  should  be  kept  from  sinking  into 
deeper  poverty,  and  out  working  my  mother 
should  never  go  ;  so  I  planned  and  so  I  hoped. 
Forget  that  morning,  the  one  when  I,  a  child, 
put  my  shoulder  to    the  wheel,  started  life  as 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  233 

a  man,  went  out,  sought  work  ?  No,  by  Joe ! 
With  joy  my  heart  beat  high.  Glad  and  proud 
was  I  to  feel  myself  a  great,  strong  boy.  You 
see,  it  never  entered  my  head  that  opportuni- 
ties wouldn't  meet  me  half  way.  Oh !  the  dis- 
appointment and  the  shame.  Yes,  I  got  the  job 
and  I  got  the  pay,  $1.50  for  a  whole  week's 
work.  My  boss  wasn't  that  Fall  River  over- 
seer who  boasts  of  pulling  his  company  out  of 
insolvency  by  fining  and  docking  its  employees, 
but  still  you  can  bet  he  was  no  angel.  Weren't 
the  Christian  Fathers  too  saving  of  their  good 
capital  when  they  allowed  there  was  only  one 
devil  ?  There  are  legions  ;  wherever  there  is  a 
chance  to  boss,  they  swarm.  Why,  every  hos- 
pital, every  public  home,  throughout  this  or 
any  other  land,  has  its  tyrants,  has  its  petty 
czars.  You  see,  I  have  been  in  some  of  them, 
have  had  experiences.  Have  been  arrested  for 
vagrancy  too  ;  but  without  a  home  to  go  to, 
what,  does  one  expect  a  cove  to  do?  I  can't 
live  on  thin  air,  and  from  off  the  earth  I  can't 
take  my  feet.      My  spirit  is  willing   sometimes 


234  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

but  pretty  generally  the  flesh  is  weak.  God 
Almighty  didn't  intend  the  stomach  to  be  filled 
with  air,  meant  that  for  the  lungs  ;  and  from 
the  signs  I  reckon  that  He's  gitting  things 
ready  for  a  startling  revelation  of  His  will  about 
feet  and  the  earth. 

"  I  was  a  steady  boy  and  stayed  years  in  my 
first  place.  I  liked  machinery,  used  to  think  I 
heard  it  talk.  All  the  time  my  mind  was  run- 
ning on  invention  ;  at  last  I  did  turn  out  an  im- 
provement ;  that's  the  time  I  was  happy.  But, 
say,  folks,  do  I  look  like  as  if  by  using  my 
brains  I  had  been  benefited  any  ?  And  yet  they 
say  brains  tell.  Now,  I've  got  a  sense  of  hu- 
mor, and  miserable  as  I  am,  I  couldn't  keep  from 
laughing  over  Mr.  Individualist's  .talk.  Them 
kind  of  lies  don't  bother  me  now,  but  they  used 
to.  You  see,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  the  last 
few  years  I  have  been  a  tourist,  a  gentleman  of 
leisure  ;  been  too  old  to  compete  with  the  young- 
er brood.  You  see,  God  failed  to  provide  for 
this  emergency,  and  so  I  have  been  thinking, 
and    I  have  been   reasoning  quite   a  good  deal, 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  235 

and  upon  more  things  than  one ;  sometimes 
have  been  almost  happy,  not  because  of  my 
wretched  affairs,  but  in  spite  of  'em. 

"  But  now  about  these  Mr.  Individualists  : 
well,  I  conclude  it's  a  pity  Balaam's  ass  started 
perpetual  motion,  left  these  fellows  without 
time  to  think.  A  different  state  of  affairs 
would  interfere  with  individual  freedom,  would 
it  ?  Rob  inventors  of  their  lawful  gains,  damp 
the  heroic  spirit  ?  Holy  Moses  !  to  make 
things  worse,  at  least  for  some  of  us,  a  differ- 
ent state  of  affairs  would  have  to  climb 
something  more  substantial  than  a  Jacob's  lad- 
der. I  haven't  lived  fifty  years,  haven't  been 
knocked  around  from  pillar  to  post,  for  noth- 
ing ;  I've  got  my  eyes  open,  had  'em  open 
from  first  to  last  ;  just  had  to,  or  would  have 
been  wiped  off  the  earth.  The  law  of  self-pres- 
ervation with  the  tramp  is  uppermost,  exactly 
as  it  is  with  you  folks,  and  don't  you  forget  it. 
I  could  tell  you  this  morning  of  present  do- 
ings, and  of  doings  to  come.  With  a  warn- 
ing  the  very  air  is  heavy,     Don't  you  feel   it  ? 


236  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Naw,  you  don't  ;  if  you  did,  souls  that  are  'way 
down  out  of  sight  would  creep  up  and  through, 
would  show  on  the  outside,  and  then  the  clouds 
would  be  lifted,  drift  away,  away,  leave  things 
bright  and  sunshiny,  not  for  you  alone,  but  for 
me  too.  But,  pshaw  !  it's  no  use  to  talk  ;  I 
don't  stand  here  for  to  herald  a  Johnstown 
flood  ;  sleep  on  ;  the  poor  old  tramp  may  help, 
but  he  cannot  hinder  the  inevitable. 

"  While  economic  conditions  are  such  that 
the  devil  operates  men,  society  wouldn't  be  bet- 
ter off  could  food  be  created  up  in  the  air ; 
when  it  floated  to  the  earth  'twould  all  be  cor- 
nered, and  some  of  us  would  still  be  homeless 
tramps.  '  The  foxes  have  holes,  and  the  birds 
of  the  air  have  nests,'  but  the  son  of  the  capi- 
talistic system  has  not  where  to  lay  his  head. 
The  burning  question  of  the  hour  is  not  the  la- 
bor problem,  but  it  is,  What  don  t  our  plutocrats 
want  ? 

"  Where  was  I  in  my  story  ?  Guess  I've 
rambled,  the  habit  of  the  tramp  ;  —  let  me  see: 
oh,  yes,    my  invention.       I  couldn't  take  out  a 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  237 

patent,  had  no  money.  Company  offered  me  a 
royalty.  I  agreed.  Typhoid  fever  took  me ; 
plumbing  in  our  dwelling  bad  :  we  were  poor 
folks  ;  see  ?  The  corporation  allowed  me  half 
pay  ;  at  the  time  I  thought  that  was  just  too 
good,  have  seen  through  it  since.  When  I 
was  getting  well — convalescing,  the  doctor  called 
it — the  overseer  came,  said  they  had  about  con- 
cluded my  invention  wasn't  worth  a  patent,  still, 
as  they  had  used  it,  and  at  the  same  time  had 
great  sympathy  for  me,  they  had  thought  the 
matter  over,  and  had  decided  that,  if  I  would 
sign  away  my  rights,  they  would  give  me  one 
hundred  dollars.  The  overseer  said  I  should  be 
grateful  for  this,  look  upon  it  as  an  out  and  out 
present.  It  went  agin  the  grain,  but  mother  was 
tired,  needed  rest,  couldn't  just  then  go  out  to 
day's  work  ;  so  I  succumbed  ;  besides,  my  situa- 
tion was  at  stake  if  I  refused.  It  seems  to 
me  that  one,  has  he  a  pennyweight  of  brains, 
must  allow  that  things  are  wrong  when  a  willing 
man  has  to  beg  of  his  fellow-men  a  chance  to 
work.     Things  are  wrong  when  revenge,  because 


238  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

an  imposition  is  resented,  when  personal  pique 
throws  a  poor  man  out  of  a  chance  to  get  a  liv- 
ing, steals  his  opportunity  to  express  his  human 
powers. 

"  Now,  I  could  understand  these  things  were 
some  men  monsters  like  them  mammoths  I  have 
seen  in  picture  books.  To  live,  to  get  a  chance 
to  work,  some  men  must  play  the  sycophant, 
must  cringe ;  I  wasn't  built  that  way,  if  I  am 
poor.  To  steal,  I  sometimes  think,  is  just  as 
honorable  and  more  consistent  with  a  body's 
sense  of  dignity.  Why,  by  stealing,  the  tramp 
may  get  a  shelter  in  some  prison  home,  but  by 
cringing  —  ugh  !  And  this  is  the  alternative 
society  forces  upon  its  most  impoverished  folks. 
Heigh-ho !  what  it  is  to  feel  your  hand  against 
everyone,  and  everyone's  hand  against  you. 
But  I  didn't  begin  it,  though.  The  shoe  that 
society  throws  after  me  has  a  leg  in  it.  Whew  ! 
I,  a  nobody,  am  moralizing.  Now,  don't  I 
know  a  tramp's  thoughts  and  feelings  is  not 
counted  in  ?  He  is  lazy,  because  he  don't  like 
the  work  you,  my  good  gentlemen  or  lady,  thinks 
fit  to  set  him.     Awful,  ain't  it  ? 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  239 

"And  so  individual  freedom  would  be  wrecked 
were  the  industrial  plant  run  in  the  interest  of 
everybody,  were  the  people  mutually  equally 
dependent,  mutually  equally  independent  of  each 
other  ?  But  then  wouldn't  this  gripless  tourist 
be  out  of  his  present  lucrative  job?  Why,  I 
feel  demoralized  by  the  very  thought.  I've  a 
venturesome  spirit,  though,  and  would  like  to 
try  that  kind  of  socialism.  And  now  I  come  to 
think  on  it,  with  a  square  chance  possibly  I 
might  come  out  natural,  might  come  straight  up, 
like  a  bird  whose  clipped  wings  have  at  last  a 
longed-for  chance  to  grow.  As  I  look  around 
upon  nature,  it  strikes  me  God's  ways  of  working 
is  to  keep  things  that  are  alike  together ;  guess 
that's  why  He  started  the  human  race  as  a  family. 
But  it's  me  that's  found  man's  way  of  doing 
business  is  to  scatter ;  wonder  who  is  man's 
prompter. 

"Ladies  and  gentlemen,  that  corporation 
changed  its  mind  about  my  invention  ;  using  it 
yet.  Health  returned  and  with  it  hope.  I  was 
young,  twenty-four,  determined  not   to  be  beat 


24O  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

down,  but  to  invent  something  more,  and  this 
time  /  was  to  be  the  one  who  should  reap  ;  at 
least  that  is  the  way  I  settled  it.  But,  by 
gracious  !  they  got  the  best  of  me  again,  this 
time  by  taking  the  matter  into  court.  It  was 
a  technical  point  on  which  I  was  worsted ;  at  least 
that's  what  the  wranglers  said.  I  s'pose  they 
thought  I  was  comforted,  but  that's  the  time  I 
shut  down  shop,  hated  folks,  discouraged,  took 
sick,  brain  fever.  Wouldn't  go  back  to  the 
factory  ;  afraid  I'd  kill  somebody. 

"  Now,  when  I  started  life  I  was  happy,  towards 
everybody  felt  friendly  ;  what  think  you  brought 
about  the  change  ?  Too  much  '  free  will,'  maybe ; 
but  it  wasn't  mine.  Yes,  I've  gone  to  the  bad, 
but  then  I'm  not  badly  scared;  reckon  an  im- 
partial Judge,  one  not  bought  up  with  corporation 
money,  one  not  influenced  by  the  thought  of 
votes,  will  know  about  how  far  to  hold  a  fellow 
responsible  for  his  feelings  and  his  acts  when 
things  outside  of  him  are  goading,  just  eating 
right  into  his  flesh  and  bone.  And  I  want  right 
here  to   tell   you,  folks,  that  I've  had  a  blamed 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  24 1 

hard  fight  with  conditions,  and  you'll  allow  that 
I've  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  making 
of  our  industrial  arrangements.  Say,  look  here, 
am  I  represented  in  Congress  ?  And  yet  they 
call  this  a  free  country.  One  thing  is  certain, 
the  poor  in  this  callithumpian  republic  are  free 
to  be  robbed  of  their  rights,  and  are  free  to 
starve.  I'm  let  beautifully  into  this  open  secret. 
"  When  I  got  up  from  the  brain  fever  I  took 
a  position  on  the  street  cars,  was  conductor, 
worked  seventeen  hours  per  diem.  Oh,  no,  that 
wasn't  regular  pay  time.  You  see,  the  company 
is  smart,  contrives  to  rub  extras  in  on  a  fellow. 
Now  don't  you  fall  into  an  error  and  think  the 
men  who  do  the  work  are  the  ones  to  be  bene- 
fited. I  allow,  that  would  be  the  natural  thing, 
but  society  ain't  built  that  way  ;  the  harvest  of 
gain  is  reaped  by  figureheads.  You  can  just 
bet  that  the  denomination  on  the  workingman's 
note  shows  up  mighty  small ;  it's  the  loafers, 
them's  the  fellers  that  draws  the  great  pay. 
Doing  night  work  my  fingers  and  toes  froze,  and  ' 
I  lost  my  right  foot,  was  in  the  hospital,  laid  up 


242  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

for  months.  That  was  the  last  straw.  Poor 
mother  took  sick,  lost  heart,  died  ;  and  I,  and  I, 
maybe  I  wasn't  desperate,  took  to  drink,  didn't 
care  if  I  went  to  the  bad.  Hadn't  I  been  wil- 
ling to  work  ?  And  to  think  the  children  were 
scattered,  were  out  of  school,  were  in  the 
factory. 

"  Before  things  got  so  bad  I  was  ambitious  to 
be  somebody,  read  a  good  deal,  wanted  to  keep 
up  with  the  times,  be  posted  on  things  in  gen- 
eral ;  used  to  buy  newspapers  ;  some  of  them  are 
more  than  half  on  the  side  of  the  working  people. 
And  then,  too,  I  belonged  to  a  club,  went  to 
lectures.  Why,  once  some  university  professors 
was  invited  to  address  us  on  protection  and 
economics.  Protection,  ha!  ha!  that  subject  I 
gave  the  '  go-by '  to.  Why,  a  man  with  a  spark 
of  mother-wit  sees  its  meaning ;  plutocratic, 
plutocratic  through  and  through.  But  I  wanted 
to  know  something  of  economics,  so  I  went  to 
hear  that  professor.  Jiminy  !  them's  the  fellers, 
regular  agitators,  the  worst  in  the  market. 
Why,  I  just  had  to  hold  on  to  my  coat-collar  to 


AND     MYTHE-MAKERS.  243 

keep  from  jumping  at  that  one's  throat.  You 
see,  his  fool  talk  maddened  me  and  I  wanted  to 
choke  it  off.  Why,  if  you'll  believe  it,  that 
blasted  idiot  stood  up  before  us  workin'  people 
and  said  the  reason  why  so  many  men  were  out 
of  employment  was  because  they  wasn't  skilful, 
didn't  do  good  work.  The  capitalists,  he  said, 
weren't  to  blame  ;  they  couldn't  help  it,  Now, 
for  a  cheerful  liar,  what  do  you  think  of  that  ? 
My  fingers  just  itched  to  wring  his  neck.  I'd 
like  to  know  when  /  refused  a  suit  of  broadcloth 
clothes  just  because  they  weren't  of  the  finest 
quality.  Just  now  my  wardrobe  needs  repairing 
and  additions.  Suppose  some  of  you  try  an  ex- 
periment and  find  out  for  yourselves  how  near 
that  university  feller  hit  the  mark.  Come,  I'd 
like  to  help  you  find  the  truth  in  this  matter. 
His  talk  on  demand  and  supply  was  a  sickener 
too,  was  the  sheerest  tomfoolery ;  he  said  that, 
to  raise  the  price  of  a  commodity,  to  make  a 
thing  dear,  shut  off  the  demand ;  folks  didn't 
want  it  then.  And  if  I  don't  disremember,  it 
was  somewhere   here   that   he  wrung  the  word 


244  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

'effective'  in,  and  by  the  use  of  that  particler 
word  he  allowed  he'd  just  got  things  down  fine  ; 
had  got  production  and  distribution  adjusted, 
relationed,  as  he  called  it.  I  want  to  be  charita- 
ble to  my  f  eller-creeters  that  are  not  overstocked, 
be  as  kind  as  some  of  the  Red  Indians  that  I 
have  read  about.  If  that  professor  lacked  gump- 
tion—     Still,  I  don't  know  about  that. 

"  All  the  time  he  was  talking  to  us  men  he 
did  so  put  me  in  mind  of  a  reciter  I  once  saw  at 
the  time  that  man  was  doing  Uriah  Heap— one 
of  Dickens'  characters,  you  know.  Dickens  was 
a  great  writer,  wasn't  he  ?  His  books  did  lots 
of  good.  After  all,  I  believe  that  professor  from 
the  University  of  Penn  was  up  to  devilish  tricks. 
We  workingmen  could  have  let  him  into  a  thing 
or  two  ;  his  pizen  got  no  chance  to  work  in  our 
minds.  You  see,  labor,  honest  fulfilment  of  the 
divine  decree,  lets  men  into  truth.  Talking  lies 
is  a  vested  interest,  just  as  much  as  selling 
liquor  ;  both  of  'em  are  direct  taxes  on  an  in- 
dividual. The  one  aims  direct  for  the  brain,  the 
other  direct  for  the  soul. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  245 

"  Now,  don't  I  want  a  house,  want  a  home,  in- 
stead of  traipsing  the  streets  nights  ?  Thank 
goodness,  my  turn  at  the  Salvation  Army's 
home  has  come  ;  I  sleep  there  to-night.  Them's 
good  folks  and  Christians  too,  as  far  as  they  can 
get  a  chance  to  go.  Walking  the  streets  cold 
nights  I  stand  and  look  at  the  churches,  and  I 
wonder  why  the  doors  don't  fly  open  ;  seems  as 
if  they  must,  and  let  me  inside,  let  me  from  the 
wind  and  rain  be  sheltered.  Why,  by  mere  de- 
vice the  Saviour  is  denied,  by  bolts  and  bars  is 
hindered  from  succoring  a  forlorn  and  helpless 
creature,  ME.  Why,  to  be  happy  one  must  have 
#his  wants  supplied  HERE  and  in  the  hereafter 
too,  must  have  comforts.  In  the  eyes  of  the  All- 
wise  can  the  future  be  more  important  than  the 
NOW  ?  Why,  how  can  it  be  ?  I  conclude 
something's  wrong  ;  our  religious  affairs  are  out 
of  gear.  Had  I  been  among  the  first  to  dig  be- 
neath the  crust,  make  this  discovery,  I  calkilate 
I  wouldn't  be  left  to  freeze,  neither  would  I  have 
been  consulted  about  the  amount  of  fire  neces- 
sary to  my  comfort.     The  pious  were  awfully 


246  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

attentive  to  the  helpless,  had  special  preparation 
for  the  work.  Prompted  by  the  Christian  spirit, 
the  burning  question  was  their  particular  forte. 
Inside  God's  house  on  Sundays  there's  no  end 
of  talk,  real  '  soft  sodder '  ;  why,  some  men  are 
trained  to  it  and  earn  their  living  in  that  way. 
Maybe  it's  honest,  and  maybe  it  ain't ;  at  any 
rate,  it  don't  make  things  better,  don't  help  the 
tramp's  cause. 

"What's  the  good  of  preachers  anyway  ?  'Taint 
apparent  to  me.  They're  pretty  generally  on 
the  wrong  side.  They  were  for  the  slaveowner 
down  South  ;  worked  with  all  their  might  and 
main  to  keep  the  colored  folks  from  thinkin' 
and  actin'.  You  allow  'twas  dreadful  for  the 
chosen  of  the  Lord  to  labor  hard  just  to  keep 
those  poor  black  creeturs  down.  They  fulfilled 
divine  decree  ;  they  earned  their  bread  by  the 
sweat  of  their  brow,  didn't  they  ?  Why,  they 
actilly  desecrated  the  Lord's  day,  broke  the 
Sabbath  by  preach  in'  that  slavery  was  right  and 
pious,  that  it  was  lawful  to  hold  a  colored  broth- 
er, and  as   like  as   not  one's    own  black  child, 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  247 

as  personal  property,  and  claimed  to  prove  it  by 
the  Bible.  When  there's  an  injustice,an  iniquity, 
to  be  sustained,  don't  it  really  seem  that  gospel 
ministers,  accootred  with  the  Bible,  are  right 
on  hand  anxious  for  the  job  ?  And,  by  Jingo  ! 
their's  is  the  magical  work,  the  wonderfullest 
tricks  you  ever  saw;  got  the  bulge  on  God's 
laws,  and  to  the  cross-eyed  soul  religious  experts 
make  black  look  white.  Look  this  matter  up 
for  yourselves  ;  go  in  deep,  don't  skim  the  sur- 
face ;  see  if  you  don't  find  that,  as  a  class,  minis- 
ters of  the  gospel  are  as  a  rule  agin  the  oppressed 
and  on  the  side  of  the  oppressor  ;  are  afraid 
of  the  grand  bounce,  I  suppose  ;  leastways,  it 
appears  mainly  to  be  a  matter  of  filthy  lucre, 
and  not  mainly  a  matter  of  following  AN  EX- 
AMPLE. 

"  Whew  !  I  must  stop  this  ;  thinkin'  on  so 
much  wickedness  is  demoralizing  to  a  feller  ; 
I'll  shift  my  thoughts  to  something  better, 

"  But,  see  here  :  don't  you  make  a  mistake 
and  accuse  this  poor  old  tramp  of  not  believing  in 
futurity  existence,  in  the  hereafter.     Why,  have- 


248  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

n't  I  listened  to  the  voice  of  machinery,  haven't 
I  looked  upon  the  heavens,  felt  the  starry  whis- 
pers ?  This  tramp  knozvs  there  is  everlasting 
life,  gets  his  knowledge  of  it  from  the  'Source.' 
For  truth  I  don't  go  to  poll-parrots.  All  I  want 
in  this  world  is  a  chance  to  get  my  living  with- 
out offering  up  prayers  to  any  partic'lar  person, 
or  giving  special  thanks  for  the  favor  ;  I  want  a 
meal  of  victuals,  and  I  don't  want  to  saw  a  cord 
of  wood — sawin'  wood  ain't  my  forte — and  so 
when  I  can  I  get  the  victuals,  and  then  I  skip. 
Shocked,  are  you,  my  benefactor  ?  S'pose  you 
put  your  thinkin'  cap  on  and  see  if  two  hasn't 
a  right  to  play  at  the  game  of  gouge.  Fringe 
upon  society,  are  tramps  ?  Now,  are  they  ? 
Look  here,  how  does  it  happen  that  fringe 
adorns  a  shawl  ?  Don't  know?  Well,  I'll  help 
you  out  of  the  quandary ;  part  of  the  shawl 
has  been  ravelled  out,  that  's  all;  see  ?  When  I 
was  a  little  feller  I  had  a  playmate  who  would 
step  on  my  toes,  kept  right  on  after  I  had  asked 
him  not  to  and  told  him  that  it  hurt ;  that  made 
me  mad,  and  I  thought,  My  mister,  I'll  fix  you ; 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  249 

so  to  get  square  I  stamped  back.  I  allow  'twasn't 
right,  but  all  the  same  'twas  natural  and  acted 
like  a  charm. 

"  If  the  labor  unions  took  up  our  cause,  but 
they  don't ;  seems  as  if  they  ought  to  have  a 
fellow-feelin'  for  us,  give  us  hope  and  not  the  cold 
shoulder.  Society  stamps  on  me,  makes  me  feel 
as  if  I  were  a  fiend  from  hell,  shoves  me-  out  a 
tramp.  Say,  good  folks,  when  at  night  you  shut 
your  doors,  seek  your  bed  and  blankets,  do  you 
ever  think  of  the  homeless  ones  ?  Consoled, 
aren't  you,  by  the  thought,  '  Well,  they're  a 
bad  lot '  ?  Guess  you  never  done  a  sum  in  vulgar 
fractions,  or  you'd  'a'  seen  cancellation 's  work. 
Why,  the  figures  above  the  line,  them  that's  on 
top,  just  'knock  the  spots'  out  of  the  feller 
underneath. 

Think  fur  'nuff,  make  a  social  application, 
find  out  how  it  stands  between  the  individooal 
acts  of  the  upper  and  the  lower  classes.  S  'pose 
you  put  your  intellects  to  work,  imagine  what  it 
is  never  to  be  sure  of  a  bed,  sure  of  a  good  square 
meal,  what  it  is  to  be  always  certain  of  cold  and 


25O  SOCIOECONOMIC    MYTHES 

hunger.  Humor  this  tramp's  whim  just  for  fun, 
and  then  examine  your  feelin's,take  account  of  the 
stock  you  have  on  hand.  I'm  thinkin'  you'll  be 
smitten  with  knowledge,  and  I'm  bettin'  right 
here  that  if  some  of  you  go  over  your  tea  or  to- 
bacco time  there's  no  livin' with  you.  Your  feel- 
in's  are  on  parade ;  that's  all  right  ;  but  when 
my  feelin's  make  the  show  the  case  is  different. 
Dissected,  wouldn't  it  turn  out  that  tramps 
have  nerves,  that  tramps  have  hearts  no  furder 
in  than  yours  ?  Placed  in  our  conditions,  no 
comforts  and  no  HOME,  wouldn't  you  feel 
desperate,  and,  feeling  desperate,  wouldn't  you 
act  so?  God  Almighty  made  us  men  ;  social 
conditions  made  us  tramps,  and  don't  you 
forget  it.  Jumped  on  from  every  quarter, 
given  at  useful  steady  work  not  the  ghost 
of  a  chance,  wont  somebody  get  right  up  and 
tell  me  what  a  man  is  to  do  with  his  strength 
and  his  courage  ?  '  Brains  tell.'  I  will  put 
mine  to  work  ;  I'll  go  to  counterfeiting,  help 
disturb  the  circulation,  aid  the  bankers.  Mr. 
Individualist  says  I've  a  right  to  voluntary  mo- 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  25  I 

tion  ;  so  don't  you  interfere.  Adieu  ;  I  am  off, 
and  I  am  onto  society." 

With  a  mirthless  laugh  he  went  ;  and  Greek 
meets  Greek.  Friends,  judge  in  yourselves,  is 
it  seemly  for  a  man  to  be  a  multi-millionaire  ? 

I  must  ask  the  audience,  would  they  hear  the 
baby's  wail,  to  keep  very  quiet.  Accustomed 
to  the  sounds,  with  your  permission  I  will  them 
interpret.  "  I  am  cold  and  hungry,  have  no 
warm  clothes,  am  barefoot,  winter  and  no  fire ; 
want  my  mamma,  she's  out  washing,  begged  me 
to  be  good  and  quiet,  tied  up  in  this  chair ;  said 
she'd  bring  me  food  ;  can't  wait,  I'm  hungry." 
But,  baby,  see  ;  thy  little  toes  should  have  dug  a 
way  up  Lord  Gorilla's  back,  then  thou  would'st 
not  be  in  want ;  born  without  the  money-caul, 
civilized  society  has  in  thee  no  vested  interest, 
owes  thee  nothing.  Why  amongst  us  Christians 
did'st  thou  come  ?  Thou  should'st  have  gone 
unto  those  savages  whose  system  of  exchange 
is  unnatural,  "  they  who  make  presents  to  each 
other;"  there,  baby  dear,  thy  social  lot  had  been 
different ;  we  are   Christians,  and   out   of  each 


252  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

other  must  make  profits.  The  Chinese  father 
counts  his  babes  redundant,  puts  them  in  con- 
ditions where  he  knows  that  they  will  perish, 
sees  they  die.  Parental  monster  !  Christian 
society's  political  father  manages,  it  is  true, 
somewhat  differently.  His  redundant  babes 
perish  in  conditions  himself  hath  made  ;  still  the 
political  father  is  well  bred,  is  gentlemanly,  turns 
aside,  does  not  watch  them  die.  Christian  civi- 
lized society  is  bigger  than  a  Chinese  father  ; 
ought  it  not  to  have  a  bigger  human  heart  ? 

"  Not  more  than  others  I  deserve,  yet  God  hath  given 
me  more, 
For  I  have  food  while  others  starve,  and  beg  from 
door  to  door." 

The  gentleman  and  lady  whom  I  now  present 
to  you  are  engaged  in  charitable  work.  Ladies 
and  gentlemen,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Underdone 
and  Miss  Seethroughit. 

Rev.  Mr.  Underdone  (speaking  drawingly)  : 
"  Friends,  it  is  with  a  feeling  of  humility  that  I 
open  my  lips  this  morning.  Having  for  years 
labored  in  the  charitable  field,  I  am   by  experi- 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  253 

ence  able  to  testify  that,  instead  of  the  poor  being 
elevated  by  my  efforts,  they  are  sinking  deeper 
into  poverty  ;  their  numbers  increase  with  alarm- 
ing rapidity.  I  am  baffled,  am  humbled  in  the 
sight  of  the  Lord.  Deep  dejection  fills  my  soul, 
ladies  and  gentlemen.  Food  and  clothes  are 
perishable,  and  the  poor  will  eat.  Feed  them, 
and  they  don't  stay  fed  ;  in  a  few  hours  they  are 
again  clamoring  for  food.  Then,  too,  their 
clothes  wear  out,  and  walking  is  hard  upon  their 
shoes.  Oh  !  oh !  [sighs]  I  have,  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  about  concluded  that  it  is  useless  to 
do  anything  for  the  poor.  Woe  is  me,  the  way 
is  dark  ;  and  yet  a  glimmer  of  light  I  see  in  the 
hope  of  a  discovery  how  to  keep  the  poor  from 
getting  hungry,  how  to  walk  and  not  wear  out 
their  shoes.  In  the  meantime  it  might  be  well 
if  good,  charitable  persons  would  go  down  to  the 
poor  and  teach  them  how  to  help  themselves ; 
their  case  would  be  hopeful  if  they  could  be 
gotten  to  imitate  the  example  of  our  millionaires, 
gotten  to  practice  the  virtue  of  abstinence,  self- 
denial.     Lacking  the  divine  spark,  they  are  or> 


254  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

durate.  I  am,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  on  my  way 
this  morning  to  consult  Mr.  Moneybags,  a  pillar 
in  my  church,  on  the  expediency  of  appointing 
an  hour  of  prayer  to  lay  my  suggestions  before 
the  Lord." 

Miss  SectJirongliit  (speaking  earnestly)  :  "  I 
went  to  the  college  settlement  with  the  inten- 
tion of  teaching  the  poor  how  to  be  economical 
and  saving,  knowledge  which  at  that  time  I 
thought  they  lacked.  My  eyes  are  opened.  I 
have  concluded  that  to  intrude  upon  them  is 
impertinence.  It  is  we,  the  would-be  instructors, 
who  have  learned  useful  lessons.  A  great  social 
wrong  exists  when  conditions  cause  the  extremes 
of  luxury  and  poverty.  I  see  the  rich  getting 
richer,  and  the  poor  getting  poorer,  and  I  un- 
hesitatingly affirm  that  the  education  needed  by 
the  poor  is  that  which  helps  them  to  come  into 
a  knowledge  of  their  social  rights,  that  which 
helps  them  to  the  knowledge  that  they  have  a 
right  to  exercise  their  human  powers.  Things 
cannot  go  on  in  this  way  much  longer ;  famili- 
arity with  the  principles  of   chemistry  leads  me 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  255 

to  declare  that  the  final  result  of  such  combi- 
nation is  social  explosion  "  (speaking  very  ear- 
nestly). "  Since  leaving  the  college  settlement 
I  have  been  occupied  with  that  class  of  persons 
whom  society  is  pleased  to  call  fallen  women, 
and,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  you  may  believe  me 
when  I  tell  you,  that  my  ideas  on  this  social 
matter  have  undergone  regeneration,  have  in 
fact  been  born  anew.  With  the  whole  subject 
I  am  so  full  of  thought  that  were  I  this  morning 
to  open  the  floodgates  of  my  soul,  'twould  drown 
you  out.  The  difference  between  fallen  men 
and  women  is  superficial,  is  a  matter  of  social 
position,  a  matter  of  mere  appearance.  Reality 
lies  deeper  ;  of  the  two,  fallen  women  have  more 
of  the  human,  and  I  want  this  morning  to  pro- 
pose that  we  women  found  a  home  for  fallen 
men,  the  management  of  which  should  be  philo- 
sophic, should  be  high  art.  To  call  up  a  reali- 
zation of  the  beauty  of  the  good,  every  effort 
must  be  tried.  My  !  if  we  could  only  make  their 
entrance  into  it  compulsory,  lots  of  families 
would,  I  know,  be  robbed  of  their  male  members ; 


256  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

but  then  the  compensation  !  They  would  get 
their  men  folks  back  changed  in  thought  ;  think 
of  that." 

Indeed  I  am  nonplussed,  I  hardly  know  by 
what  cognomen  to  introduce  the  personage 
next  upon  my  list  ;  nomenclature  fails  me. 
Ah  !  for  that  timely  suggestion  I  thank  you. 

Society  s  Quack  Doctor:  "  Here  you  are,  la- 
dies and  gentlemen,  walk  right  up,  secure  a 
recipe  ;  don't  be  backward  ;  a  large  assortment, 
all  first  class,  that  I  offer,  all  alive  and  kicking ; 
warranted  to  cure  the  ailments  of  society ; 
warranted  to  chase  a  monstrous  brood  out  of 
our  good  old  lady,  all  the  evils  she  inherits, 
all  the  evils  she  acquires.  About  the  causes 
of  her  aches  and  her  pains  don't  you  bother  ; 
the  '  why  '  of  the  obstruction  in  her  bowels  of 
mercy  is  not  of  consequence  to  us.  Besides,  to 
be  meddlesome  is  ill-bred.  Our  concern  is  to 
catch  the  effects  ;  we  are  intelligent,  we  shun 
knowlege  of  causes.  These  recipes  are  sure 
cure,  regardless  of  the  location  of  society's 
disease,  be  it  situate  anywhere,  in  any  part  of 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  257 

the  body,  from  the  tip  of  her  great  toe  to  her 
superior  fontanel.  They  are  up  and  doing,  get 
right  on  to  the  difficulty  ;  all  that  these  pre- 
scriptions require  is  to  have  the  disease  acute, 
actively  working  in  the  carcass  of  our  good  old 
dame,  society.  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  could  we 
but  catch  the  original  flea  that  bit  the  human  race, 
I  wouldn't  be  here  this  morning  at  quackery  ; 
but  we  can't  ;  trying  is  no  use,  neither  can  we 
arrest  the  biting  procession.  Guided  by  the 
'legal  merits  of  the  case,'  society  travels  on  her 
uppers,  has  no  soul. 

"  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  can  recommend 
my  first  recipe ;  it  has  been  tried  and  failed, 
its  virtues  therefore  are  known  :  increased  feu- 
dalism. The  employer  is  to  love  the  employe 
as  he  does  his  own  son.  Going  to  Chicago, 
mister?  Want  the  quickest  route?  'Jump 
over  the  moon.'  Surprised  at  my  way  of  do- 
ing, aren't  you  ?  That's  queer.  I'll  explain. 
Either  as  a  tool  or  head  officer,  middleman  or 
proprietor,  I  served  the  plutocratic  cause  nigh 
on    to    twenty  year.      Pah  !     vibratoriness   has 


258  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

been  known  to  bring  on  dizziness,  a  lasting  ver- 
tigo ;  so  it  is  more  than  likely  from  the  vender's 
usual  way  I  may  be  swayed,  and  to  make  my 
doings  fit  I  calculate  you  will  be  forced  to  exer- 
cise   your  own  imagination. 

"  Once  upon  a  time,  good  folks,  the  problem 
was  how,  dwelling  in  the  midst  of  moral  mias- 
ma, to  withstand  its  malarial  tendency.  The 
solution  has  been  found.  Have  littTe  society- 
scavengers, —  mosquitoes,  flies  ;  their  remedial 
bites  act  upon  the  social  whole  as  a  moral  qui- 
nia.  The  recipe  which  I  hold  in  my  hand  was 
loaned  me  by  the  Ethical  Culture  Society. 
Its  compounder  is  lecturing  on  ethics,  how  to 
become  moral ;  is  at  present  stationed  in  Eng- 
land.     My  !  but  that's  an  unfortunate  country. 

"  You  are  anxious  to  test  this  prescription's 
virtues  ?  Well,  have  at  it.  To  give  the  children 
food  and  clothes,  to  make  the  family  wheels  run 
smooth,  without  noise,  one  thing  alone  is  need- 
ed, this :  let  the  employer  hold  back  a  portion 
of  the  workingman's  weekly  wages  and  give 
that  portion  to  the  laborer's  wife.     See  stars  ? 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  259 

The  American  version  of  the  Bible  says  that 
for  idle  words  one  shall  be  held  to  strict  ac- 
count ;  guess  that's  why  our  able  instructor 
skipped  and  went  to  London.  The  desert  of 
Sahara  might  have  been  a  better  place  to  think 
in. 

"  Theosophical  Society ;  what  a  ticket ! 
I've  looked  into  that.  Humph!  The  'theo- 
softs  '  claim  that  a  nucleus  of  universal  brother- 
hood floats  in  their  nebula.  Don't  you  believe 
it.  Why,  that  nucleus  is  dead,  hasn't  a  spark 
of  vitality.  Their  nucleus,  however,  is  the 
smallest  part  of  the  society's  property ;  a  mo- 
nopoly is  theirs,  a  corner  in  mahatmas.  Seen 
their  signboard?  'Inquire  within.'  To  judge 
from  the  character  of  the  '  chela's  '  writings,  a 
mathematical  primer,  I  should  say,  would  be  a 
most  useful  present  to  their  Koot-Hoomi. 
Some  of  their  doings  have  been  grotesque 
enough  ;  of  occult  forgery  a  leader  was  ac- 
cused ;  fixed  for  an  investigation  was  the  time 
and  place.  To  London  from  America,  from 
India,  flocked   the   officially    faithful,   but   after 


2GO  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

all  the  quasi-judicial  affair  flattened  out  into 
a  mere  burlesque.  The  lawyer-leader  was  too 
cute  for  minds  bent  on  discovering  the  unappar- 
ent,  not  by  the  use  of  true  methods,  but  through 
the  ipse  dixit  of  authority.  The  plaintiff  in 
this  "strange  case"  through  occultism  was 
worsted,  and  this  is  how  her  defeat  was  brought 
about.  The  chela-defendant  occupied  a  dou- 
ble position  in  that  society,  vice-president  and 
something  else,  which  I  at  present  do  not  re- 
member. To  find  a  verdict  against  Mr.  Hyde 
would  naught  avail,  when  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye  before  his  peers  stood  Dr.  Jekyll. 

"  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  now  hold  in  my 
hand  a  recipe,  labelled  mammoth  nonsense.  To 
cure  without  the  aid  of  surgery  society's  gan- 
grenous foot,  educate  the  poor,  teach  them  to  be 
skilful  workmen." 

{Voice:  "Skip  that  chestnut.") 

"  My  friend,  I  thank  you.  This  recipe  is 
tied  up  with  a  white  ribbon  ;  that  augers  well ; 
attractive,  isn't  it  ?  Who  wagers  that,  folded 
inside,  a  Christ-like  sentiment  is  hid  clear  out 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  26 1 

of  sight.  The  Women's  Christain  Temperance 
Union  strongly  urges  upon  that  virtuous,  self- 
sacrificing  class,  upon  employers,  the  Chris 
tian  duty  of  discharging,  of  rejecting,  any  la- 
boring man  who  gets  drunk,  who  takes  a  glass. 
Whew !  what  are  they  '  giving  us  '  anyway  ? 
Does  legal  robbery,  living  by  profits,  does  ap- 
propriation of  the  laborer's  gain  make  of  the 
employing  class  total  abstainers  ?  I  say,  la- 
dies, '  come  off  the  perch  '  ;  stealing  the  dev- 
il's livery  to  serve  the  Lord  in  is,  to  say  the 
least,  a  shameful  thing ;  by  such  means  you 
can't  raise  pariahs.  Permit  me  to  remind  you 
that  civilization's  disinfecting  drug  is  honest 
equality. 

"Here,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  a  recipe 
with  something  new  in  it  :  go  down  to  the 
poor  and  teach  them  how  to  make  the  most 
of  the  little  entrusted  to  them  by  the  Lord. 
Hold  on  just  one  minute  till  I  fix  things  up ; 
between  poverty  and  its  cause  the  missing  link 
must  be  supplied,  the  word  'gorilla'  must  be 
added.      Charity  works  wonders,  and  this  is  its 


262  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

how.  From  the  receiver's  side,  charity  sup- 
plies all  the  poor  with  all  necessaries,  makes 
them  sure  of  comforts ;  by  dependence  upon 
charity  the  impoverished  become  wise,  philo- 
sophic, adepts  in  the  art  of  adaptation,  learn  how 
to  become  all  things  to  all  men,  that  something 
may  be  gained  thereby.  Charity  is  a  soul- 
architect,  is  a  designer,  makes  sycophants. 
From  the  giver's  side,  charity  makes  the  do- 
nor feel  good  ;  to  the  sense  of  justice  is  a  gag, 
to  vanity  is  a  bonus.  From  the  standpoint  of 
classes,  charity's  real  meaning  is,  '  Here,  take 
this  pittance,  we  give  you  back  a  paltry  portion 
of  that  which  under  money's  mask  we  have  sto- 
len.' For  society's  ailments  charity  a  cure-all  ? 
Ugh  !  silly  fools  prate  of  charity. 

"  Eureka !  at  last  I've  got  a  real  novelty,  a 
new  phrase  :  advice  to  women.  Trying  to  peek 
at  the  curiosity  ?  You  don't  get  the  chance ; 
I'm  in  charge,  and  this  rare  intoxicating  beverage 
must  be  taken  'straight.'  Teach  mothers  their 
responsibility,  urge  upon  them  their  duty,  their 
ability  to  produce  a  brand  of  sons  who  shall  be 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  263 

independent  of  environment,  who  shall  inherit 
none  of  the  father's  idiosyncrasies  ;  do  you  hear 
that  ?  To  think  that  women  have  remained 
ignorant  of  their  powers,  of  their  possibilities  ! 
Why,  their  ignorance  must  be  wilful,  for  in  the 
matter  of  advising,  of  instructing,  that  sex,  we 
men  are  never  off  picket  duty  ;  don't  know  what 
it  is  to  take  a  needed  rest  ;  morning,  noon,  and 
night  we  are  up  and  at  it  ;  in  our  sleep,  even, 
we  don't  relinquish  the  job.  The  fact  is,  I 
sometimes  think  that  by  the  sum  and  substance 
of  our  talk  a  monopoly  of  the  somnambulic  state 
is  shown  to  be  ours. 

"  Don't  let  your  interest  flag,  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen ;  don't  think  me  a  bore ;  remember  the 
greatness  of  the  occasion,  remember  society 
must  be  cured.  In  the  grab-bag  only  a  few  pre- 
scriptions are  left.  Here  is  one  that  is  isopathic  : 
To  destroy  effects,  increase  their  cause  ;  if  the 
shoe  pinches  your  toes,  be  sane,  and  tighten  the 
boot  so  as  to  have  greater  pressure.  Unrepre- 
sented, under  paternal  government,  without 
chance    of  Jioncst  arbitration,  the  economically 


264  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

oppressed,  hearing  the  still  small  voiee  of  human 
wants  and  human  powers,  feel  themselves  out- 
raged, and  throw  sticks  and  stones,  burn  street 
cars  ;  guided  by  animal  instinct,  they  vindicate 
their  cause  as  best  they  can.  To  cure  the  effects 
of  tyranny,  forcible  repression  of  the  wronged, 
pile  up  tyranny.  We  live  in  a  republic.  KING 
MONEY  orders  out  the  militia  :  sticks  and 
stones  are  not  its  missiles.  The  militia  does 
not  burn  street  cars.  KING  MONEY  has  them 
trained ;  their  work  is  destructive,  their  aim  is 
true ;  God's  travelling  cars  are  their  targets, 
and  anarchist  meets  anarchist.  Whatever  is 
legal  is  right  ;  corollary,  the  isness  of  the  is 
must  be  maintained  ;  capitalism,  Lord  Gorilla, 
must  be  sustained. 

"  And  now,  good  patient  folks,  positively  this 
is  the  last  appearing  recipe.  Its  superscription 
is  Don't.  It  combines  the  virtue  of  phlebotomy 
with  those  of  counter-irritant.  My  good  gentle- 
man, on  capitalism's  Babylonish  peak  do  you 
securely  stand  ?  in  the  industrial  whirl  to  the 
wheel  have  you  put  your  shoulder,  not  as  man, 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  265 

but  as  child  ?  If  so,  you  will  relish  this  'don't.' 
Don't  teach  the  laboring  class  that  they  have 
natural  rights  ;  the  truth  makes  them  turbulent, 
makes  them  undesirable  citizens  of  our  re- 
public." 

The  morning  is  far  from  being  spent,  shall 
we  not  take  advantage  of  our  good  doctor's  ver- 
satility ?  The  audience  will  be  pleased  to  learn 
that  he  has  consented  to  tarry  and  give  us  a 
treat,  a  recitation. 

"  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  the  medley  I  pro- 
pose to  give  is  a  combination  of  business  acts 
and  of  soliloquy.  Recital  is  my  part,  to  discover 
where  the  laugh  comes  in  is  yours.  Mr.  Nib- 
bles, a  grocery  man  on  Avenue  A,  is  seated  at 
his  desk.  Hi,  there,  Jim,  I  say,  have  you 
sugared  that  sand  ?  Well  then,  put  this  label 
on :  '  Light  grade  of  New  Orleans  sugar ; 
PURE.'  And  mind,  when  the  women  come  in 
to  buy  that  sweet  commodity,  tell  them  the  fol- 
lowing story,  for  women  have  curiosity,  and  pry 
into  the  reason  :  tell  them  that  unexpectedly  I 
came  upon  a  chance  to  purchase  a  large  quan- 


266  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

tity,  and  that  is  why  I  am  selling  it  out  cheap ; 
and  don't  you  forget  to  say  that,  after  all,  I  only 
just  manage  to  clear  myself,  to  save  a  loss. 
These  are  ticklish  times  for  a  business  man,  and 
the  women  know  it.  And,  Jim,  here's  a  bonus 
to  their  feelings  :  make  this  remark,  accidentally- 
like,  that  Mr.  Nibbles  is  an  exceptional  man, 
likes  to  share  a  good  thing,  wants  to  give  his 
customers  a  benefit  ;  eh,  Jim,  and  if  this  venture 
turns  out  as  I  have  planned,  I'll  do  a  little 
profit-sharing  with  you.  In  the  meantime  you 
are  learning  business  methods  ;  don't  forget  that. 
Yes,  sah.     Exit  Jim. 

"And  now  Mr.  Nibbles  thinks  aloud.  'I 
haven't  been  years  in  business  without  learn- 
ing some  few  things.  I  have  discovered  that 
women  have  small  sense  of  honor ;  in  little 
things  are  liars  ;  and  then  too  they  are  mean 
and  stingy.  Why,  to  save  a  dime  some  of 
them  would  talk  the  arm  off  you  ;  why  is  it  ? 
Can't  be  because  women  haven't  money.  I 
never  leave  my  wife  without  a  quarter.  She 
couldn't  get   along   without   money  ;  the   thing 


AND    MYTIIE-MAKERS.  267 

is  impossible  ;  and  don't  we  know  that  ?  Men 
weren't  born  yesterday.  Children  have  to  be 
fed  and  clothed,  and  if  sick,  why,  there's  the 
drugs  ;  and  the  girl  —  servants'  wages  must  be 
paid.  And  occasionally  I  will  have  some  little 
delicacy.  I  own  it  ;  I  believe  in  a  man  being 
honest,  owning  up  to  the  corn.  Sometimes  I 
need  something  appetizing.  My  wife  always 
has  money  ;  I  take  care  of  that.  And  so,  what- 
ever may  be  the  cause  of  a  woman's  stinginess, 
it  certainly  is  not  the  want  of  money.  I'd  like 
to  know  what  is  the  matter  with  women  any- 
way ;  must  be  that  their  heads  are  light,  top 
story  unfurnished,  eh  ?  By  Jove,  I  have  hit  it ; 
they  run  mad  after  fashions,  and  that's  a  sign 
of  vacancy,  isn't  it  ?  Haven't  I  heard  them  rave 
over  a  color,  call  it  aesthetic  ?  Bah  !  the  silly 
things. 

"  '  Yes,  that's  my  name ;  what  can  I  do  for 
you  ?  Pay  this  bill  ?  Well,  let  me  see  it.  Fif- 
ty dollars  for  cutting  off  my  horse's  tail  ? 
Whew !  you've  gone  up  on  surgery.  Case  of 
demand  and  supply,  want  to    adjust  the  market 


268  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

to  your  pocket  ;  I  see  through  it.  To  cut  off 
Dobbin's  tail  I  paid  only  twenty-five  dollars. 
I  call  this  raise  unfair;  it's  taking  advantage  of 
a  man's  necessities  ;  you  veterinaries  must  be 
getting  rich,  kept  steady  at  such  jobs.  The 
men  who  own  horses  have  just  gone  mad  on  this 
fashion.  But,  I  say,  can't  you  reduce  this  bill  a 
little,  scale  it  on  the  score  of  casualties  ?  Why, 
the  horse  isn't  well,  and  may  die  yet ;  the  spine, 
by  that  operation,  has  received  a  shock,  and, 
robbed  of  nature's  means  of  self-defence,  the  pes- 
ky flies  have  full  swing,  torment  the  poor  fellow 
almost  to  death,  irritate  him  beyond  measure. 
I'm  not  a  fool ;  of  course  I  know  that  a  mutila- 
ted horse  is  less  valuable  than  a  sound  one  ;  don't 
deny  the  thing  is  a  piece  of  tomfoolery  ;  but  then, 
what's  a  man  who  wants  to  be  in  style,  wants  with 
his  horse  to  cut  a  figure,  to  do  ?  Might  as  well 
be  out  of  the  world  as  out  of  fashion,  is  an  old  and 
true  proverb.  Here's  your  money,  just  receipt 
the  bill.      Good-morning,  sir. 

" '  Could  we  but  catch    the    original    robber 
of    the    horse  race,  the  man  who    first    began 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  269 

the  brutal  business,  why,  then  it  could  be 
stopped;  but  we  can't,  and  so,  "guided  by  the 
merits  of  the  case,"  by  fashion,  there  is  nothing 
for  us  but  to  go  on,  and  on,  and  on,  forever 
and  forever,  cutting  off  poor  horses'  tails. 
Heigh-ho  !  I'm  glad  it's  over  ;  it's  a  mean  piece 
of  business,  but  then  it  is  heroic.  My  wife 
musn't  see  this  bill  ;  lucky  it  didn't  go  to  the 
house.  Wasn't  she  opposed,  said  'twas  cruel, 
fiendish.  But  then  she  calls  eating  meat,  feed- 
ing on  the  corpses  of  our  coexistent  ancestry. 
Women  do  have  queer  streaks. 

"  '  I  am  worried  ;  my  bank  account  is  getting 
low,  the  money  till  is  about  empty.  That  last 
bet  of  mine  now,  had  I  only  won  it.  Gracious 
me,  but  things  are  lackadaisical.  Why  is  it  we 
men  don't  get  along  better  ?  I  am  sure  we  try 
hard  enough  to  keep  from  going  under,  try  to 
keep  erect  and  on  our  economic  feet ;  and  I 
know  for  a  fact  that  business  is  conducted 
on  a  grand  scale  ;  men  have  brains.  Not 
an  honest  thing  in  the  market  ;  adulteration 
is  kept  jumping,  busy  in  every  direction,   and 


27O  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

yet,  after  all,  in  money  matters  it  is  the  few 
who  have  easy  minds.  My  good  mother  used 
to  say  that  nothing  went  without  hands,  so 
somebody's  extravagance  must  be  to  blame  for 
the  difficulties  of  business  men.  Wouldn't  I 
like  to  ferret  the  folly  out,  whatever  it  may  be. 
Guess  I'll  think  a  minute.****  Great  Scott !  I 
have  it  :  our  women  chew  gum.  Let  me  see  : 
"where  was  I  at  ?"  I'm  frustrated  by  that  dis- 
covery, that  addition  to  inductive  science.  I 
think  I  was  going  to  make  a  remark  about 
women.  Yes,  that's  it.  I  am  disappointed  in  the 
women,  for,  what  with  their  limited  capacity 
and  the  educational  advantages  they  now  pos- 
sess, they  ought  to  make  progress,  ought  to 
acquire  more  knowledge  of  business  methods, 
ought  to  be,  in  short,  more  businesslike. 
Men  try  hard,  always  have  tried,  to  stimulate 
the  women  to  greatness  by  encouraging 
them  ;  morning,  noon,  and  night,  they  have 
rubbed  their  inferiority  in  on  them.  Now,  my 
wife  in  answer  declares  that  talk  is  vapory,  that 
a  tree  is  known  by    its    fruits  ;  protests  that 


AND     MYTHE-MAKEKS.  2  J  I 

she  is  a  realist,  demands  an  exhibition  of 
men's  superiority  ;  at  the  same  time  she  says 
she  begs  the  favor  of  a  "  rest "  from  their 
boast.  What  is  a  man  to  do  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, with  only  the  raw  material,  the 
power  to  become,  and  no  finished  product  on 
hand  ?  This  is  the  way  I  get  out  of  the  difficulty  : 
I  cling  to  talk.  Oak-like,  isn't  it  ?  I  get  mad 
and  insist  that  she's  got  our  exhibition  of  su- 
periority. Mary  Jane  retorts  by  pointing  to 
what  she  calls  sex-precedent,  meaning  this  :  a 
rejoicing  rooster  on  a  refuse  heap  flaps  his 
wings  and  crows  ;  a  hen  laid  the  egg.  Mary 
Jane  to  me  at  times  is  awfully  impertinent. 

"'Business  is  dull  this  morning,  customers 
don't  flock  in  ;  tfiat's  the  fault  of  the  women, 
they  are  too  saving,  try  to  make  a  little  go  a 
long  ways  ;  times  with  business  men  would  be 
better  if  the  women  were  inclined  to  be  extrava- 
gant. 

"  '  Well,  haven't  I  had  a  loud  reverie.  Can't 
help  it.  Man  has  an  active  brain,  and  that  is 
why  he  is  so  superior  to  all  the  rest  of  crea- 
tion.    Heigh-ho !  I  may  as  well  keep  at  it. 


272  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

"  '  Educational  opportunities,  why  are  they 
closed  to  women  ?  The  hand  of  Providence 
must  certainly  be  in  it,  for  ministers  fight  wom- 
an's progress  inch  by  inch  every  step  of  the 
way.  My  wife  accounts  for  the  mystery  by 
what  she  calls  an  occult  reason ;  says  that,  un- 
consciously conscious  of  their  deficient  start, 
men,  to  lessen  the  gulf  between  them  and 
the  favored  sex,  the  one  which  had  a  bet- 
ter God-impulsion,  have  cornered  educational 
opportunities.  Of  late  years  I  am  not  both- 
ered to  help  the  church,  either  by  my  presence 
or  with  my  money.  How  I  did  begrudge 
that  last  gift,  my  haul  from  a  lucky  bet  ! 
All  went  to  fix  up  a  fine  altar  and  to  buy 
for  the  church  an  expensive  Bible.  Mary 
Jane  says  she  has  shed  her  milk  teeth,  and  is 
now  working  to  uplift  humanity.  My  wife  is 
a  socialist.  I  don't  often  come  right  out 
with  this  ;  it  would  hurt  my  business,  would  in- 
jure me  with  my  political  party,  and  so  I  keep 
shady ;  but  now  I  am  alone  and  have  nobody  to 
fear  ;  besides,  talking  aloud  makes  an  imagina- 
tive man  fancy  he  is  an  orator. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  273 

" '  I  take  it  she  wants  the  brotherly  condition 
brought  about.  That's  too  good,  ha  !  ha  !  ha  ! 
As  though  there  would  ever  come  a  time  when 
men  wont  do  each  other  up  if  there  is  a 
chance.  My  wife  wants  the  state  to  adopt 
the  family  plan  ;  fool  notion  ;  shows  a  woman's 
ignorance  of  a  man,  the  image  of  his  Maker. 
How  can  women  know  about  the  Lord  when 
they  make  such  mistakes  ?  That  rib  isn't 
straightened  out  yet  ;  I  reckon  it  isn't  working 
natural.  I  would  like  to  have  some  proof  of 
that  Bible  story  ;  I  must  ask  the  college  dem- 
onstrator of  anatomy  if  he  finds  men's  ribs  un- 
even, more  on  one  side  than  the  other.  I  more 
than  half  believe  that  sometime  that  bony  ex- 
planation will  turn  out  to  be  a  wrong  transla- 
tion, just  a  crow  rigged  up  to  scare  the  men 
folks  into  subjection.  But  what  am  I  saying? 
This  way  of  accounting  for  it  wont  do  ;  there 
is  a  superlative  objection  :  the  women  had  no 
hand  in  getting  up  the  Bible,  and  when  found 
sick,  it  is  divinity  that  doctors  our  Holy  Book. 
Let    me  think  :  now,    if   men  were  started   on 


274  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

the  race-track  physically  imperfect,  minus  a  rib, 
why,  then,  of  course  the  women  folks  would 
come  out  physically  ahead  ;  I'm  willing  to 
stake  on  that.  And  yet  it  is  the  men  who  vote. 
Well,  I  don't  understand,  unless  the  knee-pan, 
at  the  beginning,  was  the  site  of  more  intelli- 
gence than  the  rib  ;  unless  civilization's  select- 
ive power  led  to  nice  sex  discriminations,  knew 
exactly  where  to  strike  a  deathblow.  Acquired 
deficiencies  must  be  more  damaging  than 
those  deficiencies  with  which  one  starts,  than 
natural  imperfections  are.  Is  that  reasonable, 
though  ?  Men  are  not  ashamed  of  ribbal  in- 
sufficiency, boast  of  it  ;  men  have  made  the 
Bible.  I  am  in  a  muddle  ;  that  comes  of  follow- 
ing suggestion's  lead.  Well,  I  am  precious 
sure  of  one  thing  :  if  physical  deformity  is  natu- 
ral to  men,  and  civilizalion  hasn't  helped  us  out, 
we  are  in  a  pretty  box.  Woman's  day  is  at 
hand,  and,  by  George  !  the  revisers  better  hus- 
tle, jump  onto  that  crooked  story,  make  it 
straight,  make  it  fit  in  natural  with  things  that 
are  actual. 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  275 

"  'To  remonstrants,  my  wife  suggests  that  they 
investigate  socialism  in  a  rational  spirit ;  the  very 
existence  of  society  implies  socialism  in  some 
form  or  other,  so  she  says  ;  and  the  present  form 
is  bad,  is  destructive  to  that  friendliness  which 
it  has  taken  ages  to  build  up  ;  she  protests  that 
our  present  socio-economic  condition  leads  to 
prostitution  of  the  human  feeling.  She  meets 
one  objection  by  reminding  me  that  I  do  not  eat 
with  all  the  folks  whom  I  meet  in  the  street 
cars  ;  declares  that  fraternal  socialism  does  not 
entail  loving  the  uncongenial  ;  that  to  respect, 
to  love,  the  principle  of  right  dealing,  equality 
would,  in  a  way  natural  to  humans,  bring  that 
state  about.  When  in  the  course  of  her  argu- 
ment she  turns  and  with  pathos  asks,  Why  leave 
the  well  uncovered,  knowing  that,  though  George 
and  Mary  may  escape,  John  and  Bessie  must 
fall  in,  must  drown  ? — when  into  her  socialistic 
talk  she  brings  the  children — I  own,  through  fear 
for  their  future,  I  am  more  than  half  convinced. 
You  see,  it's  about  other  people's  children  that 
we  men  don't  care  a  darn.      So  limited,   Mary 


276  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Jane  says,  the  character  of  our  motive  is  not  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  the  brute  mother  who  pro- 
vides, fights  for,  and  loves  her  own  children. 

"  '  Once  we  came  near  to  quarreling.  The 
morning  paper  told  of  motherless  children  shipped 
to  their  father  who  was  laboring  in  the  West  ; 
went  there  to  get  a  job.  Not  being  properly 
notified  of  the  time  of  their  arrival,  the  poor 
children  had  to  hang  about  that  Western  station. 
Well,  after  they  had  had  twenty-four  hours  of 
it,  hungry  and  disappointed,  all  of  them  broke 
down  and  cried.  Jerusalem!  the  folks  flew,  took 
them  pies  and  cakes,  fixed  them  up  with  warm 
clothes,  and  found  their  father  for  them.  It 
thrilled  me  through,  and  I  allow  'twas  charitable, 
'twas  grand  ;  but  my  wife  wouldn't  see  it,  said 
she  was  disgusted  that  in  a  civilized  country  the 
social  state  permitted  children  to  travel  alone, 
permitted  children  to  be  neglected  ;  said  the  only 
way  to  get  attention,  to  get  one's  natural  rights, 
was  to  make  a  big  noise. 

"  '  Mrs.  Nibbles  assures  me  that  fraternal  so- 
cialism will   come  anyway,  and  she  asks  me  if 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  277 

the  business  men  care  whether  the  servant  girl 
gets  her  letters  or  not.  I  have  to  own  up  that  of 
course  they  do  not,  but  that  the  means  which 
ensures  us  an  orderly  reception  of  our  letters, 
ensures  poor  Gretchen  hers.  I  accuse  Mrs. 
Nibbles  of  being  an  anarchist,  and  she  admits 
it ;  says  she  wants  to  destroy  everything  that  is 
not  natural  to  our  industrial  methods,  everything 
that  is  not  natural  to  us  as  human  beings.  She 
accuses  those  who  inveigh  against  socialism  of 
absurdity,  of  shutting  their  eyes  to  facts,  of  not 
seeing  that  paternal  socialism's  irritating  control 
trickles  through  all  social  layers  ;  says  that  to 
please  some  employers  shop  girls  must  wear 
black  ;  and  then  she  goes  off  into  a  merry  laugh 
over  male  ideas  of  a  free  country.  Starting  with 
the  capitalists,  who  are  the  first  controllers,  she 
travels  on  down,  shows  that  between  the  grocery- 
man  and  the  butcher  the  hour  for  meals  is  varied, 
no  two  of  them  consecutively  are  alike,  and  then 
she  pins  me  down  by  asking,  Can  fraternal  social- 
ism do  more  than  to  decide  what  shall  and  what 
shall  not  be  produced,  and  how  much  of  what 


278  SOCIOECONOMIC    MYTHES 

is  in  the  market  one  shall  have  ?  Can  fraternal 
socialism  do  more  than  to  interfere  with  your 
personal  arrangements,  interfere  with  your  pri- 
vate affairs?  Annoyances  from  servants  ?  Well, 
upon  this  topic  my  wife  don't  talk  ;  she  thinks 
that  as  a  class  they  are  abused,  and  in  their  de- 
fence I  have  heard  her  say  that  the  persons  she 
has  found  most  destitute  of  the  moral  sense  are 
not  in  the  servant  girl  ranks. 

"  '  Steam  heat  ?  Ah  !  that  is  a  sore  point  with 
me.  I  have  had  experience,  have  felt  the  double 
bite,  frost  and  burn.  Now,  I  don't  like  a  busi- 
ness joke  played  on  me.  One  don't  want  in  his 
home  to  experience  the  extremes  of  temperature, 
winter  and  summer,  in  a  single  day.  Offices  are 
heated  by  steam  ;  there  the  square  thing  is  done ; 
but  in  dwellings  ?  Can  it  be  that  they  think 
that,  if  women  and  children  are  mainly  the  ones 
to  suffer,  it  don't  matter  ?  Well,  anyway  I  have 
concluded  that  obtaining  tenants  under  false 
pretences  ought,  like  obtaining  goods,  to  be 
actionable.  Mary  Jane,  when  I  broach  the  sub- 
ject,   takes    in  her  flag,  insists  that  of  course 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  279 

landlords  want  to  turn  an  honest  penny  ;  that 
it  is  unreasonable  to  expect  them  to  make  ten- 
ants a  present  of  heat.  She  says  that  when  the 
sun  is  shining  in  Florida,  or  in  the  southeast 
apartment,  if  the  occupants  of  the  northeast  flat 
expect  comfort,  warmth,  they  are  anarchists. 
She  says  that  beggars  shouldn't  be  choosers,  and 
avers  that  one  ought  to  be  more  than  satisfied, 
having  both  certainty  and  surprises  combined  in 
a  steam-heated  apartment,  the  certainty  of  un- 
certainty, and  the  joyful  surprise  when  warm  air 
does  come  radiating  up.  But  I  don't  like  it ;  it 
don't  suit  me  to  be  frozen  one  hour  and  roasted 
the  next,  and  so  I  have  decided  upon  a  set  of 
questions  to  be  categorically  put  to  landlords 
and  their  tools  (beg  pardon,  agents)  the  next 
time  I  rent  a  steam-heated  apartment.  This 
lack  of  balance  in  the  management  of  steam  heat 
my  wife  accounts  for  by  the  fact  of  its  male  con- 
trol, the  engineer  thinking  that  to  give  the  regu- 
lation amount,  the  quantity  KING  MONEY'S 
perquisite  allows,  is  all  that  is  necessary ;  no 
cause  to  growl  about  the  time  or  the  evenness 
of  its  coming  up. 


280  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

"  'For  the  people's  awful  comfort,  the  principle 
of  inequality,  the  economic  gospel  is  responsible, 
Mary  Jane  says,  and  I  believe  that  she  is  about 
right.  Not  that  I  always  approve  of  my  wife's 
views,  and  I  don't  often  encourage  her  socialis- 
tic talk  ;  it  would  not  do.  She  is  altogether  too 
intellectual,  takes  after  her  mother's  side  of  the 
house.  Why,  for  generations  the  women  of  her 
family  have  a  record  of  being  smart.  Now,  I 
know  what  I  am  talking  about,  have  investigated 
this  matter,  know  that  Mary  Jane  has  a  power- 
ful brain,  thinks  too  much,  and  that  is  why  I 
act  as  moderator.  I  am  a  pretty  liberal  man  ; 
my  wife  says  so.  That  reminds  me  :  I  have  a 
friend  who  says  he  never  believes  anything  a 
woman  says  about  her  husband,  that  is,  if  it  hap- 
pens to  be  good ;  says  it's  natural  for  a  wife  to 
want  to  make  folks  believe  that  her  hubby  is  just 
too  good  and  smart,  and  that  she  will  try  to  do 
it  every  time  unless  she's  dead  beat  out  by  the 
man.  It  is  a  fact  that  women  are  fabricators  even 
over  trifles,  seems  somehow  to  be  their  nature, 
seems  to  be  in  grain.     But  then  that's  not  my 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  28  I 

wife,  what  sJic  says  can  be  depended  upon  every 
time  ;  the  higher  mathematics  ain't  more  truth- 
ful ;  and  my  wife  says  I  am  a  pretty  liberal  man. 
Still,  I  wouldn't  like  to  see  our  women  in  public 
affairs  ;  they  are  too  possessed  with  the  idea  of 
uniformity,  would  congeal  things,  would  obstruct 
progress.  Now,  were  school  affairs  under  the 
management  of  the  women,  schools  in  this  great 
city,  New  York,  would  for  all  the  children  be 
provided ;  thousands  of  little  folks  on  education 
bent  would  not  be  turned  away  on  the  plea  of 
no  room  inside,  be  bidden  to  go  roam  the  streets. 
That's  the  way  it  is  now.  I  am  compelled  to 
own  that  the  Political  Fathers'  method  of  pre- 
paring children  to  become  respectable  citizens 
is  disgraceful  to  an  enlightened  republic,  but  the 
principal  of  inequality  would  be  denied  were 
every  child  given  schooling  opportunity ;  it 
would  be  imprisoned,  confined  to  its  lawful 
quarters,  and  then  things  would  be  congealed. 
Medical  authority  claims  that  civilization  has 
made  changes  in  woman's  knee-pan,  unfitted  her 
to   vote.       Physical   deficiency   interferes    with 


282  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

woman's  use  of  the  ballot,  but  leaves  the  men- 
tally bow-legged  free  to  exercise  the  franchise. 
By  Jupiter!  I  allow  that's  queer.'  Ladies  and 
gentlemen,  I  bid  you  good  morning." 

I  am  sure  that  I  voice  the  feelings  of  this 
audience  when  I  say  that  we  are  grateful  to  so- 
ciety's quack  doctor,  and  to  his  double,  the  re- 
citer, for  the  lively  entertainment  they  have  fur- 
nished us  this  morning  ;  but,  Herr  Doctor,  may 
I  be  allowed  to  make  one  correction  ?  I  think 
that  you  called  society  a  dame  ;  now,  to  that  I 
take  exception.  Rectify  that  error  in  the  fu- 
ture ;  kindly  bear  in  mind  that,  though  unmanly, 
political  society  is  every  inch  a  man. 

Friends,  let  us  suppose  that  one  of  us  falls 
ill,  sends  for  a  doctor,  the  case  by  her  is  diag- 
nosticated pneumonia.  Is  she  pessimistic  ? 
Which  of  us,  if  sane,  holds  that  physician  re- 
sponsible for  the  suffering  and  the  pain,  our  im- 
minent danger  ?  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  have 
great  pleasure  in  introducing  the  Socialist,  who, 
though  last,  is  by  no  means  the  least. 

SOCIALIST  :  "  You  have  sat  long,  you  must 


AND    MVTHE-MAKERS.  283 

be  weary  ;  I  shall  endeavor  to  be  brief.  Upon 
society's  actual  exhibition  I  shall  lightly  touch, 
but  upon  what  society,  by  implication,  is,  were 
there  time,  I  would  say  much.  Humor  a  lover's 
fancy  ;  I  would  personify  society  as  my  other 
self,  my  better  half.  I  love  my  wife  and  I  would 
have  her  womanly,  would  have  her  well. 

"  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  need  I  remind  you 
that  not  an  individual  thing  stands  by  itself 
alone  ?  Relations  exist  and  can  be  found.  Thus 
the  unknowable  is  reached,  and  thus  all  things 
are  unified.  Particulars  into  generals  must  fit. 
Humor  a  lover's  fancy  ;  come  with  me  upon 
abstract  conception's  track.  Let  us  imagine  a 
something  having  vitality,  a  something  that  is 
plastic  ;  true,  carbon,  nitrogen,  and  oxygen,  as 
commonly  positioned,  are  not  its  elements.  The 
constituents  of  social-protoplasm  are  Principles 
and  Powers,  the  Unknowable  on  its  subjective 
side.  Sifted,  you  are  aware  that  everything  is 
motion  ;  in  perpetual  manifestation  are  the  Prin- 
ciples and  Powers,  actors  in  the  omnipotence- 
drama.     This  granted,  you  will  allow  that,  given 


284  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

Om's  impulsion,  my  wife's  motion  must  be  ever 
onward  ;  unto  perfection  she  approaches  through 
lesser  forms  ;  by  and  by  she  will  be  human,  and 
eventually  reach  the  divine.  From  resistance 
to  the  UP  and  the  ON  comes  the  wayward  mo- 
tion ;  into  the  plans  of  God  such  hath  not  en- 
tered ;  my  Lord  Evolution  drives  Om's  stately 
van.  Tossed  to  and  fro  are  the  surface  waters, 
but  look  into  the  river's  deep,  look  below  ;  there 
the  current  ever  onward  moves  to  the  ocean,  to 
the  sublime. 

"  By  analogy  may  we  not  interpret  the  mean- 
ing of  the  destiny  of  social-protoplasm,  may  we 
not  gather  lessons  from  the  result  of  motions 
by  life's  physical  basis  ?  I  think  so.  Traveling 
through  beings-space,  ere  protoplasm  reached 
the  human  form,  the  detours  were  many  that 
it  made ;  collected,  boiled  down,  separated  from 
the  froth  and  the  scum,  what  is  the  substance 
of  their  deep  purport  ?  Why,  this  :  a  body 
with  a  backbone,  a  head,  and  a  perfectly 
formed  heart, 

"  Now,  wherefore  a  backbone  ?     Why,  to  pre- 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  285 

serve  equality  in  opportunity,  and,  by  preserva- 
tion of  equal  natural  rights,  to  co-ordinate  the 
different  individual  parts  into  a  living  organism, 
into  a  unified  whole,  the  palace  car  of  OM.  Up- 
on the  spine  a  blow,  traumatic  injury,  and,  lo ! 
there  arises  a  nervous  disorder,  disclosed  by  the 
uncertain,  the  wabbling  gait.  Upon  the  social 
spine  falls  the  blow  of  the  Lord  Gorilla.  So- 
ciety's walk  is  reeling  ;  she  is  not  drunken,  is 
diseased  ;  society  has  locomotor-ataxia. 

"  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  you  know  our  claims, 
our  socialistic  prophecy.  Society  must  become 
human.  Why  ?  Because  in  social-protoplasm 
there  is  the  active  woman  element,  the  principle 
of  sympathy ;  it  is  persistent,  and  it  will  be  ex- 
pressed intelligently.  How  will  this  be  brought 
about  ?  and  how  account  for  the  character  of 
the  mode  of  this  coming  introduction  ?  Good 
friends,  I  leave  with  you  this  double  conundrum  ; 
put  head  and  heart  to  work,  and  it  is  readily 
seen  through. 

"Briefly  I  call  attention  to  some  facts  which 
show  us  by  exemplification  what  we  have  a  right 


286  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

to  expect.  Church  supremacy,  in  the  minds  of 
the  people  as  a  whole,  has  received  its  death- 
blow ;  a  twin  fetich,  divine  right  of  kings,  keeps 
the  supreme  corpse  company.  Merely  as  social 
institutions  the  church  and  monarchy  are  strug- 
gling now  to  maintain  position.  The  divine 
right  of  money  holds  the  fort  of  supremacy  ; 
its  feet  are  getting  cold  ;  socialism  is  at  work, 
the  death  gurgle  comes  in  time,  and  then  hark  : 
the  king  is  dead,  long  live  King  Humanity. 

"  First,  the  horde,  for  subsistence,  all  did  the 
same  thing  ;  new-born  humanity  was  unacquaint- 
ed with  its  powers.  Differentiation  came,  and 
into  the  clan  were  introduced  the  political  thought 
and  bad  social  adjustment.  Chattel  slavery, 
long  a  prevalent  mode  of  service,  has  gone  ;  in 
the  game  of  social  euchre  must  wage  slavery 
not  follow  suit  ?  By  the  relation  of  divided  parts, 
by  the  facts  of  division  and  of  form  —  But 
kindly  look  upon  this  demonstration ;  it  will 
save  time  and  show  the  sure  prophecy  of  social 
adjustment's  final  state,  Fraternity,  to  those  at 


±ND    MYTHE-MAKERS. 


287 


least    who    sense  the    meaning   of   progressive 
motion  : 


5OCIETV 


"  With  the  spoils  system  gone,  and  Fraternity 
at  home,  conduct  has  no  economic  chance  to  be 
less  than  human,  less  than  straight  and  square. 


288 


SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 


"  Will  the  audience  kindly  tarry  for  a  mo- 
ment ?  I  hear  a  voice ;  from  spirit-land  a 
form  is  coming.  Wearied  with  the  hardships 
of  his  lot  a  laboring  child  of  twelve,  a  little 
factory  boy  down  East,  lost  courage  with  us 
to  live,  but  believing  in  a  Heavenly  Father 
he  found  the  courage  to  depart  —  suicide  by 
drowning.     Hush-sh-sh !  he  speaks  : 

" '  I  wanted  to  be  like  other  boys,  go  to  school 
and  have  playtime,  but  from  morning  until 
night  with  me  was  work  or  starve.  I  wasn't 
strong,  my  legs  ached ;  at  last  there  came  a 
happy  thought  —  run  away  ;  but  then  where 
to  ?  I  didn't  know  anyone  that  would  take  me 
in,  be  kind  and  let  me  play,  and  I  didn't  know 


AND     MYTHE-MAKERS.  289 

what  to  do,  which  way  to  turn,  until  I  thought 
of  heaven  and  God.  It  was  noon,  the  sun  was 
shining  bright,  and  seemed  to  say,  "  Come 
right  up  here,  little  boy;  there's  lots  of  room." 
I  felt  encouraged,  took  my  way  down  to  the 
river's  brink  ;  guess  a  kind  spirit  helped  me, 
though,  and  gave  me  strength.  Splash  !  *** 
When  I  woke  up  an  angel  had  me  in  her  arms. 
Spirits  knew  that  I  was  tired.  Things  up  here 
are  good  and  lovely,  and  oh !  I  am  so  happy 
and  so  glad.     Good-bye.'  " 

(The  audience  is  gone  and  I  am  anxious  to 
inquire  if  my  wife,  for  her  effort  to  do  good,  to 
sow  socialistic  seed,  feels  repaid  ;  am  anxious 
to  express   the    hope  that  she    is   happy.) 

To  give  perceptive  power  is  the  work  of 
deity ;  but  our  duty  is  to  help  each  other  unto 
opportunities  to  unfold.  The  soil,  I  know,  was 
good,  and  I  do  indeed  feel  sure  that  socialis- 
tic seed  has  taken  root.  Oh  !  would  that  I 
possessed  the  magic  power  to,  on  the  instant, 
call  it  up  a  blossoming  tree,  another  instant, 
change    the  blossoms    into    the  perfect    fruit. 


29O  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

(Remember  all  things  come  to  those  who 
wait  ;  I  would  my  wife  were  a  more  patient 
person.  Well,  business  presses,  and  I  for 
my  engagements  am  already  late.  Good-morn- 
ing ;  I  shall  be  home  at  six.) 

"  All  things  come  to  those  who  wait." 
Kindly  meant,  but  by  just  such  phrases  folks  are 
gagged ;  without  some  one's  effort  and  some 
one's  work,  nothing  comes.  Of  comforts  and 
luxuries  I  am  possessed,  and  if  I,  when  think- 
ing upon  the  wants,  upon  the  galling  poverty,  of 
others,  feel  as  I  do,  what  must  their  sensation 
be,  upon  whom  the  tiger  has  fixed  his  tooth  and 
claw  ?  And  then  to  know  that  it  is  needless  ; 
"  aye,  there's  the  rub  ";  to  know  that  it  is  be- 
cause rights  and  opportunities  are  pillaged. 

No  sentiment  in  business,  I  have  heard  it 
said.  Egregious  blunder !  In  sentiment,  the 
sentiment  of  self,  is  business  soaked.  "The 
struggle  for  existence  "  is  a  phrase  that  fitted 
the  living  fact  before  productive  power  grew  tall 
enough  to  look  into  the  eyes  to  read  the  soul  of 
man's  environment.     The  struggle  for  existence 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  29 1 

means  now  class  carnage.  Were  my  children 
crying  for  bread  and  I  none  to  give,  were  my 
babes  pinched  by  the  cold  and  I  powerless  to 
help,  I,  their  mother,  to  get  square  with  the 
social  monster  would  feel  an  eternity  too  short ; 
and  if  within  my  breast  the  sleeping  lion  by 
sympathy  is  aroused,  what  wonder  if  actual 
sufferers  turn  demons  ?  I  know  that,  in  the 
future,  folks  shall  live  as  humans,  and  by  the 
thought  my  soul  is  buoyed  up. 

The  grand  social  change,  how,  oh  !  how  shall 
it  be  brought  about,  be  ushered  in  ?  Shall  it  be 
by  intelligence  directly  applied  to  that  end  ? 
My  house  of  hope  rests  not  on  rock  of  sand. 
My  expectation  on  desire's  high  sea  in  princi- 
ples and  in  REACTION'S  power  is  anchored. 
Pour  into  a  full  vessel  and  it  overflows,  clothes 
are  soiled,  and  the  unwise  get  wet.  The  ful- 
ness of  oppression's  cup  is  rising  to  the  brim. 
Wisdom  sought  not  Adam  ;  could  not  reach  his 
intellect  but  through  his  love  of  self,  through 
appetite.  Wisdom  in  the  guise  of  serpent  went 
unto  the  woman. 


292  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

In  my  conclusions  have  I  erred  ?  Be  chari- 
table, my  brothers  ;  excuse,  I  pray  you,  on  the 
ground  of  woman's  faulty  logic. 

The  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number  ? 
Political  gag,  dead  and  gone.  The  greatest 
good  to  each,  the  greatest  good  to  all,  mother 
thought,  radiating,  alive ;  fraternal  socialism, 
our  socio-economic  state  centered  on  the  family 
plan.  Nobody  pulled  down,  everybody  lifted  up, 
and  that  social  class  who  from  the  mathematic 
point  of  view  morally  are  robbers,  reclaimed, 
and  by  sanitary  social  conditions  cured  of 
their  disposition  to  do  violent  deeds.  Excelsi- 
or !  Not  in  the  possession  of  happiness,  but 
in  the  method  of  its  gainment,  at  the  expense 
of  others,  selfishness  lies.  Do  not  unto  others 
that  which  ye  would  not  they  should  do  unto 
you.  "  Give  me  a  fulcrum,  and  I  will  lift  the 
world,"  says  Archimedes.  Here  brother,  take 
it  :      You  and  me. 

Through  the  operation  of  NATURAL  at- 
traction, associations  formed  ;  in  the  socio- 
economic     millennium,     commingling     of     the 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  293 

congenial,  friendships,  every  human  feeling 
not  trampled  upon  by  KING  MONEY. 

Did  I  hear  the  question  asked,  What  under 
fraternal  socialism  must  be  done  with  our  guard- 
ian angels,  keepers  of  reformatory  homes  for 
moral  monsters,  indigent,  forlorn,  our  helpless 
girls  and  boys,  children  for  whom  Christ  did 
not  live  and  agonize  ?*****  N0)  I  will  not 
second  the  motion  to  send  those  keepers  to 
*  *  *  *.  Why,  I  have  friends  there ;  besides, 
the  invalids  in  that  winter  resort  ought  at  least 
to  have  a  chance  to  *  *  *  *  *  And  since  my 
medical  opinion  has  been  asked,  I  prescribe  for 
these  protectors  of  the  spiritual,  these  evolvers 
of  the  good,  these  hatchers  of  the  moral  self, 
the  heavenliest,  purest  atmosphere.  A  milder 
form  of  bliss  I  think  might  work  a  full  effect 
upon  their  ministerial  defenders. 

Fraternal  socialism,  by  the  law  of  opposites, 
in  one  of  two  ways  must  come.  By  philosophic 
anarchism  shall  its  advent  be  ?  Well,  that  de- 
pends. The  earthquake's  roar  was  sudden, 
likewise  the   earthquake's  appearance,  but  for  a 


294  SOCIO-ECONOMIC    MYTHES 

long  time  the  forces  had  been  gathering.  The 
earth's  crust  was  inelastic,  would  not  yield. 
Examine  forts,  fill  them  with  ammunition,  store 
your  bombs  ;  intimidation  is  your  game.  Get 
ready  for  an  uprising  of  the  people.  Tools  of 
KING  MONEY  slaughter  the  unrepresented  ; 
this  is  a  republic.  With  the  blood  of  victims 
natural  rights  must  be  bought  ;  this  is  a  repub- 
lic. With  money,  with  powder  and  with  shot, 
privileges  are  purchased.  Guided  by  "  the 
merits  of  the  case "  anarchists  sustain  Lord 
Gorilla's  cause  in  this  republic. 

Think  to  prevent  fraternal  socialism  ?  Can 
the  accoucheur  prevent  the  birth  ?  Economic 
methods  contain  within  themselves  the  "  sacred 
fire."  "  What  can  be  avoided  whose  end  is 
purposed  by  the  mighty  gods  ?"  Down  with  vi- 
cious legislation.  Christians  of  the  millennium, 
be  not  afraid ;  opportunity  to  fight  will  still 
continue  ;  look  within,  subjugate  that  monster. 
Peace,  peace ;  the  world  wants  peace.  But 
the  industrial  massacre  goes  on.  And  the  cry 
goes    up,    and  the  cry  goes  up ;  shall   it    never 


AND    MYTHE-MAKERS.  295 

come  down  ?  What  say  the  facts  of  motion  ? 
Yea,  verily  !  Plutocrats,  be  aware  !  The  ball 
which  decends  to  earth  with  great  momentum 
received  its  force  from  an  impelling  hand.  RE- 
ACTION is  EQUAL  to  ACTION  and  in  the 
contrary  direction.  Is  society  a  band  of  robber- 
ruffians,  bound  together  by  the  bond  of  mutual 
murder  ?     Come,  let  us  be  human. 

And  Jesus   said,  I  come  no.t  to    bring    peace 
[TO  SINFUL  CONDITIONS],  but  a  sword. 


THE    END. 


From  the  press  of  the  Arena  Publishing  Company. 

A  Stirring  Drama  of  T3Uar-ITime$. 

Price,  paper,  50  cents  ;  cloth,  $1.25. 
nary         I 
Holland  Lee  j   MARGARET  SALISBURY. 

The  setting  of  the  story  is  vivid  and  picturesque,  bridg- 
ing the  period  of  our  Civil  war,  and  its  touches  upon  New 
England  and  Virginia  life  are  full  of  local  color,  provincial 
phraseology  and  dramatic  power.  The  tale  opens  with  a 
description  of  Three  Oaks,  a  fine  Virginia  estate,  the  fate 
of  whose  owners  is  curiously  interwoven  with  the  three 
gigantic  trees  from  which  the  place  receives  its  name. 
Mrs.  Lee  strikes  the  note  of  heredity  firmly,  and  the  most 
tragic  complication  of  her  plot  hinges  upon  the  unlawful 
use  of  hypnotic  power.  The  world  of  books  is  far  too 
poor  in  well-told  stories  of  our  war,  to  accord  anything 
less  than  enthusiastic  welcome  to  this  latest  comer,  so  full 
of  rich  detail  and  striking  scenes  both  North  and  South, 
and  so  winning  in  the  even,  impartial  temper  with  which 
the  sad  struggles  of  the  great  Rebellion  are  incidentally 
set  forth.  It  will  attract  that  great  army  of  readers  which 
turns  to  books  for  amusement  and  distraction. 

"  Margaret  Salisbury  "  is  the  brave  and  loyal  heroine  of  a 
stirring  drama  of  the  Civil  War.  Her  love  story  is  a  sad  one 
and  long  in  telling,  but  it  affords  the  author  opportunity  to  intro- 
duce pictures  of  Southern  life  in  anti-bellum  days  and  some 
startling  episodes  of  army  times.  The  sympathetic  interest  of 
the  reader  will  be  aroused  by  a  succession  of  unusual  incidents. 
—  Public  Opinion,  Washington,  D.  C. 

North  and  South,  their  people  and  principles,  are  the  text  of 
the  book.  The  slavery  question  is  treated  from  an  unprejudiced 
standpoint.  The  Negro,  Yankee  and  Southern  characters  are 
lifelike  under  skilful  moulding.  As  a  love  story  it  is  pure,  sim- 
ple, strong  and  pathetic. —  The  American  Newsman,  New  York 
City. 

"  Margaret  Salisbury  "  is  a  story  of  the  war,  and  is  charm- 
ingly told.  Its  heroes  are  of  the  real  kind  who  believe  what 
they  profess  because  they  were  born  to  believe  so.  The  story  is 
enlivened  by  a  vein  of  rather  exquisite  humor  and  toned  up  by 
clean,  pure  and  healthy  sentiment,  altogether  furnishing  a  most 
entertaining  tale  of  heroic  times.  —  Kansas  City  Journal. 

For  sale  by  all  newsdealers,  or  sent  postpaid  by 

Arena  Publishing  Co.,  Boston,  Mass. 


A  Bundle  of  New  Books. 


&  ]Neui  Booh  of  Social  thought.  Just  Published. 


B.O.  Flower 


The  Social 
Factors  at  Work 
in  the  Ascent  of 
Man 


Rev. 

Minot  J. 

Savage 


A  New  World,  a 
New  God,  a  New 
Humanity 


The  New  Relig- 
ious Thinking 
deals  only  with 
Verities 


Price,  paper,  25  cents]  cloth,  $1.00. 

The  New  Time  :   A  Plea  for  the  Union  of 
the  floral  Forces  for  Practical  Progress. 

This  new  work,  by  the  author  of  "  Civilization's  In- 
ferno," deals  with  practical,  methods  for  the  reform  of 
specific  social  evils.  The  writer  does  not  bind  together  a 
mere  bundle  of  social  speculations,  that  would  seem  to 
many  to  have  only  a  remote  and  abstract  relevance  to 
everyday  life.  He  deals  with  facts  within  every  one's 
knowledge.  "The  New  Time"  brings  its  matter  di- 
rectly home  to  every  man's  bosom  and  business  —  follow- 
ing Bacon's  prescription. 

It  is  published  especially  to  meet  the  wants  of  those 
who  wish  to  apply  themselves  to  and  interest  their  friends 
in  the  various  branches  of  educational  and  social  effort 
comprised  in  the  platform  of  the  National  Union  for  Prac- 
tical Progress ;  but,  from  its  wide  sweep  of  all  the  factors 
in  the  social  problem,  it  will  also  serve  to  introduce  many 
readers  to  a  general  consideration  of  the  newer  social 
thinking. 

Price,  paper,  50  cents  ;  cloth,  $1 .00. 

The   Irrepressible    Conflict   between 
Two  World=Theories. 

Five  lectures  dealing  with  Christianity  and  evolutionary 
thought,  to  which  is  added  "  The  Inevitable  Surrender  of 
Orthodoxy."  By  the  famous  Unitarian  divine,  advanced 
thinker  and  author  of  "Psychics:  Facts  and  Theories." 
Mr.  Savage  stands  in  the  van  of  the  progress  of  moral, 
humane  and  rational  ideas  of  human  society  and  religion, 
which  must  be  inextricably  commingled  in  the  new  think- 
ing, and  a  stronger  word  for  moral  and  intellectual  free- 
dom has  never  been  written  than  "  The  Irrepressible 
Conflict."  We  are  now  going  through  the  greatest  revo- 
lution of  thought  the  world  has  ever  seen.  It  means 
nothing  less  than  a  new  universe,  a  new  God,  a  new  man, 
a  new  destiny. 

For  sale  by  all  newsdealers  or  sent  postpaid  by 

Arena  Publishing  Co.,  Boston,  Mass. 


From  the  press  of  the  Arena  Publishing  Company . 


Fiction :  Social,  Economic  an6  Reformative. 


Charles  S. 
Daniel 


A  Story  of  the 
■Transformation 
of  the  Slums 


E.  Stillman 
Doubleday 


A  story  of  the 
Struggles  of 
Honest   Industry 
under  Present 
Day   Conditions. 


Price,  paper,  50  cents;  cloth,  $1.25. 
JU5T   PLAIN    FOLKS. 

A  novel  for  the  industrial  millions,  illustrating  two  stu- 
pendous facts :  — 

1 .  The  bounty  and  goodness  of  nature. 

2.  The  misery  resulting  from  unjust  social  conditions 
which  enable  the  acquirer  of  wealth  to  degenerate  in 
luxury  and  idleness,  and  the  wealth  producer  to  slave  him- 
self to  death,  haunted  by  an  ever-present  fear  of  starva- 
tion when  not  actually  driven  to  vice  or  begging.  It  is  an 
exceedingly  interesting  book,  simply  and  affectingly  told, 
while  there  is  a  vast  deal  of  the  philosophy  of  commun- 
ism in  the  moralizing  of  Old  Bat.  All  persons  interested  in 
wholesome  fiction,  and  who  also  desire  to  understand  the 
conditions  of  honest  industry  and  society-made  vice, 
should  read  this  admirable  story. 


AI 


Price,  paper,  50  -.ents  ;  cloth,  $1.25. 
A  Social  Vision. 


One  of  the  most  ingenious,  unique  and  thought-provoking 
stories  of  the  present  generation.  It  is  a  social  vision,  and  in 
many  respects  the  most  noteworthy  of  the  many  remarkable 
dreams  called  forth  by  the  general  unrest  and  intellectual  activ- 
ity of  the  present  generation.  But  unlike  most  social  dreams 
appearing  since  the  famous  "  Utopia  "  of  Sir  Thomas  More, 
this  book  has  distinctive  qualities  which  will  commend  it  to 
many  readers  who  take,  as  yet,  little  interest  in  the  vital  social 
problems  of  the  hour.  A  quiet  humor  pervades  the  whole  vol- 
ume which  is  most  delightful. 

The  brotherhood  of  man  and  various  sociological  and  philan- 
thropic ideas,  such  as  the  establishment  of  a  college  settlement 
and  the  social  regeneration  of  Old  Philadelphia,  are  a  few  of 
the  topics  discussed  in  "  Ai,"  a  novel  by  Charles  Daniel,  wh< 
calls  it  "A  Social  Vision."  It  is  alternately  grave  and  gay;  ant 
the  intellectual  freshness  reminds  one  constantly  of  Edward 
Everett  Hale's  stories,  with  which  "Ai"  has  much  in  common. 
This  is  a  clever  book,  and,  what  is  much  more  important,  one 
whose  influence  is  for  good.  —  Public  Ledger. 


From  the  press  of  the  Arena  Publishing  Company. 


A  Sequel  to  "Looking  Bachuuar&." 


Rabbi 
Solomon 
Schindler 


YOUNG  WEST. 


Frier,  cloth,  $1.25  ;  paper,  50  cents. 


Civilization 
under  National- 
ism in  the 
Twenty-Second 
Century 


The  author  of  "  Looking  Backward1'  and  others  did  a 
good  work  in  introducing  to  the  general  reader  many  ideas 
which  had  been  discussed  for  a  long  time  by  the  best 
scientific  writers  of  our  day,  but  which  were  and  are  un- 
fortunately removed  from  popular  sympathy  through  the 
strictly  scientific  character  of  the  literary  vehicles  in  which 
they  appeared.  But  the  author  of  "  Looking  Backward," 
probably  on  account  of  the  limited  compass  of  his  book, 
has  not  given  in  detail  a  description  of  all  the  social  con- 
ditions of  the  brighter  future  which  is  to  witness  the  tri- 
umph of  altruism.  He  has  merely  whetted  the  appetite  of 
the  reader,  but  he  has  not  satified  his  hunger.  "  Young 
West "  (the  son  of  Julian  West)  will  indirectly  answer  all 
these  questions.  Describing  his  own  eventful  career  from 
his  first  awakening  to  consciousness  to  his  age  of  three- 
score and  ten,  the  hero  of  the  book  will  picture  life  in  its 
various  phases,  as  it  will  be  acted  out  by  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States  of  America  in  the  twenty-second  century. 

The  book  is  intended  primarily  to  answer  the  many 
questions  which  are  asked  about  the  practical  workings  of 
nationalism  and  socialism. 


A  Stirring  Story  of  the  T#ar. 


Helen  H. 
Gardener 


Price,  cloth,  $1.25  ;  paper,  50  cents. 

AN  UNOFFICIAL  PATRIOT. 

This  is  a  story  of  the  Civil  War,  but  it  is  the  first  story 
of  its  kind  that  has  appeared  in  our  literature.  It  deals 
J  with  a  phase  of  the  war  entirely  new  in  fiction.  It  is  a 
departure  from  all  Helen  Gardener's  previous  stories,  and 
is  perhaps  the  strongest  piece  of  work  she  has  produced. 
The  Boston  Home  Journal  says:  "Is  in  many  ways  the 
most  remarkable  historical  novel  of  the  Civil  War  which 
has  yet  appeared.  The  story  is  filled  with  strong  dramatic 
incidents,  and  there  is  a  bit  of  charming  romance.  Mrs. 
Gardener  has  produced  a  book  that  will  take  very  high 
rank  in  the  historical  literature  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  ; 
for  although  presented  in  the  form  of  a  novel,  its  historical 
value  cannot  be  questioned." 

For  sale  by  all  newsdealers,  or  sent  postpaid  by 

Arena  Publishing  Co.,  Boston,  Mass. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

R t(J  U  U1Tbi§.book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


MAY  29 1969 


Form  L9-Series  4939 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


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K563s 


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